On the recordMay 4, 2010
You mentioned the issue of Wall Street pay. The numbers are really astounding. In 2007, before the collapse, Wall Street paid out $137 billion to its employees. In 2008, in the midst of the great collapse, they actually reduced it. They went down to $123 billion. But in 2009, while unemployment in America was hovering well over 10 percent, and in California 12 percent, in 2009, the Wall Street fat cats paid themselves $145 billion. I believe a lot of that money was our taxpayer money that we put in Wall Street to shore up the banks, and instead of making loans to Main Street, to the contractor, to the fellow that wanted to manufacture more ladders, that wanted to improve his business and hire people, instead of making loans to them, it appears to me that they took the money that was used to bail out Wall Street, to stabilize the economy and stabilize the banks, they took that money and they put it in their own pockets. That is reprehensible. There was a bill here circulating, it hasn't passed, but I think it ought to pass, where these Wall Street bonuses, of which this $145 billion is part of, I think it ought to be taxed.
