Jim Webb: “He writes: . . . the Office of the New York Attorney General has been conducting an inquiry into various aspects of…”

“He writes: . . . the Office of the New York Attorney General has been conducting an inquiry into various aspects of executive compensation at many of our nation's largest financial institutions . . . [including] a review of compensation practices at the 2008 TARP-recipient banks. He makes a very valid point at the end of his letter. And here, he is writing to a company that had paid back the initial TARP money. He writes: . . . when you received TARP funding, your firm took on a new responsibility to taxpayers. While your firm has now paid the TARP money back---- Again, not all have; most of the money has not been paid back---- it is not clear that your firm would have been in the same position now had you not received that TARP money. We have all struggled with this issue. There have been many different approaches. In fact, Chairman Baucus has been out front on this issue in a number of different ways. I have in front of me the Compensation Fairness Act of 2009, which Chairman Baucus introduced last March, which was one attempt to address this issue of windfall profits bonuses. This legislation was sponsored by Senators Grassley, Schumer, Menendez, and others. Our bill is much narrower than this bill. This bill would tax bonuses of more than $50,000. Our bill taxes bonuses of more than $400,000. This bill would have taxed institutions that received more than $1 million. Ours requires $5 billion. This bill was retroactive and recurring in terms of the taxes.…”