Political Quotes

“let me just take a few moments to outline the three reasons why I believe my colleagues should vote in favor of this resolution. First, stock option plans are broad based and are growing. We all know, as the Senator from New Jersey said, some of the dramatic stories about a relatively small number of very well-compensated executives. The fact is that last week's Business Week had their annual survey on executive compensation and pointed out that Michael Eisner, the CEO of Disney, had a salary last year that was just short of the gross national product of Grenada. Now, it may be, Madam President, that my children feel Mr. Eisner deserves that extraordinary salary. However, those stories do not paint an accurate picture--and the public reaction to them of anger understandably--of the role stock options play in the U.S. economy, nor, most importantly, who gets stock options. In fact, this debate has nothing to do with executive compensation. That, incidentally, is one point where FASB and those of us who are putting forth this amendment are in agreement. FASB has pointed out over and over again that their proposal is about accounting, not compensation. To assert that FASB's proposal is about executive compensation is like arguing that the Boston Tea Party was about tea. Obviously, it was about something larger, as is the FASB proposal.”