Political Quotes

“H.R. 4931 is made to help the rich get richer. Seventy-seven percent of the tax reductions in the bill will go to the wealthiest 20 percent of Americans. H.R. 4931 allows executives to be rewarded for cutting rank-and-file pension benefits. It continues to allow executives to evade taxes on stock options when the company moves overseas in order to avoid taxes. It permanently extends benefits for the well-to-do, but selectively allows the only provision that applies to low-income workers to expire. So much for helping average workers. Have the sponsors of H.R. 4931 learned nothing from the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history that happened less than a year ago? Enron paid senior executives more than $744 million in cash and stock in the year up to the bankruptcy filing on September 2. Insider payments went to 140 top Enron managers. Enron set up a deferred compensation plan that allowed executives to contribute more, get guaranteed returns on their money, and get legal guarantees that these monies would be safe even if the company went bankrupt. The CEO of Enron has a pension that will pay $475,000 each year for the rest of his life, and a prepaid $12 million life insurance policy. What about the employees? No special benefits, and 6,000 Enron employees lost their jobs and pensions. They had to go to court to claim $4,600, their minimal severance pay, which is capped by law.”