Giuliani Defends Wall Street Bonuses While Slamming Tax Cuts For The Poor
Giuliani Defends Wall Street Bonuses While Slamming Tax Cuts For The Poor
Yesterday, reacting to a New York State Comptroller report showing that Wall Street banks doled out $18.4 billion in bonuses in 2008, President Obama denounced the practice as “shameful.” “That is the height of irresponsibility. It is shameful, and part of what we’re going to need is for folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility,” Obama said emphatically. The same day, the Congressional panel overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) recommended that financial regulators revoke bonuses for executives of firms seeking government help.
Appearing this morning on CNN, however, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani stridently defended the practice of enormous bonuses untethered to actual performance, warning that ending the tradition “really will create unemployment”:
GIULIANI: I remember when I was mayor, one of the ways in which you determined New York City’s budget, tax revenues, was Wall Street bonuses. Wall Street had a billion, two billion in bonuses, city had a deficit. Wall Street had 15 to 20 billion, New York City had a 2, 3 billion surplus. And it’s because that money gets spent. … It does have a reverse effect on the economy, if you somehow take that bonus out of the economy. It really will create unemployment. It means less spending in restaurants, less spending in department stores. So everything has an impact.
Watch it:
Even as he was pushing for more billions to be handed out to failing businessmen, Giuliani railed against President Obama’s tax cuts for the poor: “That’s not stimulating the economy, that’s solving some kind of social agenda.” He was more explicit last week, condemning the tax cuts as “welfare” with Fox News’ Sean Hannity:
GIULIANI: Yes, if — somebody is not paying taxes is going to get a check from the government, then that is welfare. You haven’t earned it, that’s a welfare payment. I think he’s going to have to abandon that in light of the economic situation.
HANNITY: Are you thinking that he’s really — he’s going to abandon all these things?
GIULIANI: I think so.
Conservatives raised the “welfare” scarecrow throughout the presidential campaign, even though the claim is bogus. As Factcheck.org pointed out, “a worker can be a ‘taxpayer’ whether or not they owe any income tax.” Nearly every worker pays Social Security and Medicare taxes — “totaling 7.65 percent on every dollar of earnings” — and Americans pay federal taxes every time they buy gasoline or pay a phone bill, for example. Congressional Budget Office figures show that even the lowest-earning households pay about 4.3 percent of their income to federal taxes.
At the end of the CNN segment, Giuliani pushed for more bailout funds for investment banks. In other words, Giuliani is all for Wall Street welfare that fuels a skyrocketing cost of living, but virulently opposed to tax cuts for the poor that help fuel an economic recovery.
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This pretty well sums up why Americans saw to it the Fruity Rudy was the first one out of the Presidential primary race.
Go find your ballroom gown & dance down Wall St., Rudy.
January 30th, 2009 at 10:49 amSo.. bonuses for the people who’ve run the economy into the ground… no tax relief for the people who are actually doing the work.
And they wonder why they lost the election….
January 30th, 2009 at 10:50 amDid Rudi wear pearls w/ his blue wool dress, or the diamonds?
January 30th, 2009 at 10:55 amYup, that makes PERFECT sense, Rudy. Someone please tell me why quacks like Guiliani get so much air time on national TV???
January 30th, 2009 at 11:00 amGiuliani Defends Wall Street Bonuses While Slamming Tax Cuts For The Poor»
– - Bonuses, spend, 9/11.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:04 amRudy hired a criminal to run his campaign and he is a cross dressing fool.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:06 amThe Republican party is seriously out of touch with the common man to the point of delusion. This doesn’t surprise me, but what does surprise me is how so many people in this country fall victim to their propaganda. This worries me the most.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:06 amEAT THE RICH.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:07 amAh, yes, Rudy Guiliani – a true Man of the People.
*eyes rolling*
January 30th, 2009 at 11:07 amWhy does Giuliani want to raise taxes?
January 30th, 2009 at 11:07 amIs the issue whether or not bonus money is spent, or is that Wall Street makes so much money that it can hand out enormous bonuses, but yet still needs to be bailed out by Main Street?
January 30th, 2009 at 11:09 amTRICKLE DOWN THEORY DOES NOT WORK!
evidence: the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor.
why does it matter? in the 2004 elections 90% of political contributions came from the wealthiest 1/4 of the wealthiest 1%. who’s interests do you think the gov’t looks out for as a result? see Noam Chomsky’s book Profit Over People
if you answered the average american, you are wrong. If you answered the rich and their businesses then DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!
lets try a trickle up theory for a change so the average american can spend money in the private sector on goods and services provided by the wealthy, because clearly the trickle down effect has not been working.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:11 amthis man knows all about exploiting the system….
Mr. 9/11 couldn’t give make enough speaking engagements and raking MILLIONS of dollars in while exploiting the tragic victims of 9/11.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:12 amTHey really do resent the middle class, don’t they?
It doesn’t matter if relief to people who actually spend most of their incomes gives the economy more of a boost than bonuses to, as raynman says, “people who’ve run the economy into the ground”.
Republicans have different priorities than we do. They would rather see the economy wrecked, as long as their folks get theirs, than see the economy rebound if it means working people get a break of any kind or dimension.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:13 amGiuliani Defends Wall Street Bonuses While Slamming Tax Cuts For The Poor»
– - Regale us again Rudy with that nomination-winning Florida strategery again.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:14 amSadly, Republicans have no idea how creepy they are.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:14 amMore republicanism. “The Divine Right Of The Rich”, they should call it.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:15 am…and yet, sadly enough, TPer’s like Rudy more than his children do.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:17 amDoes Rudy even begin to hear himself and how stupid he sounds? In his world, giving money to the poor is welfare, and giving money to rich people is good for the economy.
If you have a million dollars and give $500 each to 20,000 poor people (or even middle-class people), virtually all of that money will get spent. Poor and middle-class people have to spend what they have to obtain what they need to live.
But give that million dollars to one rich person who doesn’t need it and watch how much of it winds up in a Swiss bank account.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:17 am“A noun, a verb, and 911″ needs a basic course in psychology. People who are rewarded (a bonus) will repeat the behavior that got them rewarded (run their company into the ground). Why does “A noun, a verb, and 911″ hate American companies?
January 30th, 2009 at 11:18 amralph the wonder llama Says:
Republicans have different priorities than we do. They would rather see the economy wrecked, as long as their folks get theirs, than see the economy rebound if it means working people get a break of any kind or dimension.
__________
Awww, ralph… you just don’t understand the rich, that’s all. They just want to make sure the middle class folks earn their money the same way the rich do… by inheriting it from their… okay, so that doesn’t play the way I hoped it would.
Never mind.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:18 amAs a professional editor, I have to take President Obama to task for his choice of a single word.
Shameful needs to be replaced. The best descriptive would be shameLESS.
Because these people don’t know the meaning of the term ’shame’. They have none.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:19 amJust think, Rudy could have just as easily bubbled up to the top of that creepy heap of mean old white guys that were the republican front runners.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:20 am9iu11iani!
Can’t keep a good man down. Whatta wanker.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:20 am9iu11iani! Nice work.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:21 amF@ck You Roody! Why don’t you STFU and get back to offering your security services to every shady middle eastern foe of Democracy that you can find? Another Republican traitor to America whose need for relevency keeps him clammoring for attention on FAUX News. The “world’s mayor” who was retarded enough after the first attack on the towers to move his command center into…..the towers! The “world’s mayor” who stood up for a criminal Administration while turning his back on first responder’s health concerns after breathing in untold amounts of noxious dust on the pile in the weeks following the attacks. Rot in Hell Roody!
January 30th, 2009 at 11:22 amOff topic, but did you all see the bloodshed, the explosions, the mayhem and chaos in the aftermath of the impeachment of Rod in Illinois? I heard downtown Chicago was a no-man’s-land of artillery and blazing buildings. Brother against brother…it’s a statewide civil war, all because their Legislature impeached and removed the chief executive from office.
Thank God we avoided that in D.C. eh?
January 30th, 2009 at 11:23 amIf he’s that worried about the money getting spent, why not split that up more between the workers instead of having these CEOs get a single bonus that’s 100 times the salary of a worker?
Give me a break.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:24 amAhhh, the myth of sustainable capitalism is falling apart.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:26 amGiuliani railed against President Obama’s tax cuts for the poor: “That’s not stimulating the economy,…”
Rudy you are not an economist. This is exactly wrong. Spending by anyone stimulates the economy. And the working poor and the poor will necessarily spend whatever tax cut they get, while there is no necessity for the rich to do the same.
Additionally, you are an ugly, ugly crossdresser. However, you are better looking as a woman than as a man.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:28 amSo heres one major problem i have with the words that actually came out of rudy’s mouth.
he claims that the billions of dollars in bonuses given to a relative few get spent?
excuse me?
do you honestly believe, rudy, that these guys go out and spend their millions and billions of dollars and that all that money goes back into the economy?
please.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:30 amTrickle-down economics is getting closer and closer to Flat-Earthism in terms of relevance. Keep talking, cons.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:33 amThe sad truth of the matter is this: too many Americans and economists believe Giuliani’s diatribe to be fact. Let’s make it simple: Any economic stimulus designed to put public money or corporate profits into the hands of its citizens benefits the wealthy. It’s arithmetic: 5% bonus or tax cut on 20K is $1000; 1% bonus or tax cut on 1-million is $10K to say nothing of a similar 5% tax cut or bonus. Working Americans have been deluded into becoming accomplices in the robbing of the national treasury and future generations. Let’s look at the numbers: some 70-80% of Americans have zero net worth or less. Soooo, how is this current economic climate affecting your net worth? The difference between having discretionary capital and having none is enormous in a country that has a very thin social safety net. What is our ranking in the world? 34th!
Finally, an economy based on the ideology of Capitalism is a consumption economy. Therefore, doesn’t it make sense that the more people who have money to consume goods and services would make a healthier economy? The answer, of course, is yes. What neoliberals do not like about this scenario is that gross capital accumulation (greed) is decreased. You know, like the billions of dollars in bonuses to wall street executives who are involved in almost totally unproductive activity; activities which contributes little to the health of the nation but benefits them enormously. Otherwise, why is it that 99% of the nation’s exploited wealth is controlled by 1% or 3.5 million of the nation’s population. This scenario is not sustainable, which brings us to where we are to date. Which brings us to this question: Where are the shareholders of these companies? Don’t they understand the concept of fiduciary responsibility? Of course, this means that you are literate and actually read spreadsheets. Ask the Madoff investors.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:34 amGreed, it has ruined the country, but some, like Mayor 911, think this is a good thing. Thank God, Obama won.
The Republicans do not have a clue.
I did a happy dance yesterday when Obama gave a smack down to the greedy b-st-rds.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:34 amcalavzma Says:
he claims that the billions of dollars in bonuses given to a relative few get spent?
____________
Dear Rudi: You give ME a billion dollars, or even a paltry 100 mil, I hereby PROMISE to spend it like a drunken GOOPer in a DC whorehouse.
GUARANTEED!!!!
January 30th, 2009 at 11:34 amstewarjt Says:
Giuliani railed against President Obama’s tax cuts for the poor: “That’s not stimulating the economy,…”
Rudy you are not an economist. This is exactly wrong. Spending by anyone stimulates the economy. And the working poor and the poor will necessarily spend whatever tax cut they get, while there is no necessity for the rich to do the same.
Absolutely right. If the rich do celebrate by taking themselves out to dinner a few times, the thousands of dollars they drop on the table will quickly vanish, while every dime returned to the poor will end up in the economy.
The wealthy are undoubtedly stashing as much of their wealth as possible overseas, or in gold, or whatever seems safest. The last thing they’re likely to do is spend it on American goods.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:35 amWhere are all of our friends like scream the praises of market capitalism? Hello out there….
January 30th, 2009 at 11:36 amstick a “who” and a “to” in there
January 30th, 2009 at 11:38 amThis bears repeating:
But they need to give out those bonuses in order to keep the talent that bankrupted the company in the first place! You just don’t get it. Without those bonuses, those highly talented individuals will seek and secure employment with other companies, where they will repeat their past performance. It would create “Cripple-Down” economics.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:38 amRudy, Rudy, you are definitely an elitist moron Reich Wing nut that only cares about the wealthy and your party`s ideological ways and you could care less about the people of this country who have done all the work and who are hurting the most.You hate Obama,the middle and working class and America itself.You and your ilk are on your way to distinction sooner than you can imagine.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:44 amRudy and haters like him is yet another reason why the GOP is in its death spiral.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:47 amI wonder what Stepford Dad Mitt thinks…
January 30th, 2009 at 11:53 amRudy think it is the bonus money being spent. Perhaps when the bonuses were based on the success of the market and everybody was making money this would make sense. But the moron thinks these Wall Street bigwigs can’t afford to go out and spend money when they want to without their bonuses. He is as simple as Palin.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:56 amWould someone please tell me how NOT to pay taxes to the government? Everything you purchase has something going to the government. Even if you work for a paycheck, or are pensioned some money goes back. How is it all these out of touch hacks know so much about the lowest 10% of us? Especially Guiliani. He begs these cretins on Wall street for money. He faked his way through the tragedy on 9/11 to promote himself into security gigs that aren’t worth sh*t.
January 30th, 2009 at 12:03 pm911 Rudy is probably running for Gov. He was sane once – really. Rudy was always abrasive but he was a RINO and an effective mayor for most of his tenure. We knew that he lost his mind when he wanted to extend his term after 911. While his mental stability has diminished, his ego has expanded. Perhaps that correlation is not uncommon among Republicans or crazy people. Or …
January 30th, 2009 at 12:14 pmDuring the Presidential primaries, Giuliani reported his net worth as “between” $18 million and $70 million. His sympathies do not lie with either the middle-class or the poor.
January 30th, 2009 at 12:14 pmMost compensation plans pay bonuses for profits. Wall Street is losing their asses and asking to be bailed out. How do you get bonuses for being a failure? That is why the President called them out. They are taking bonuses even though they have run the firms into the ground.
January 30th, 2009 at 12:16 pmThere’s good reasons why Rudy couldn’t even win one primary – this is just one of them. He doesn’t have a clue.
Why reward the fools the helped bottom out our economy?
January 30th, 2009 at 12:18 pmDNFP Says:
January 30th, 2009 at 12:27 pmEAT THE RICH.
No thanks. Even my cast iron stomach can’t handle that.
I am not a megabuck corporate type but the idea of paying bonuses to people who aren’t doing their job right seems sort of bassackwards. Out here in the Midwest businesses pay bonuses for a good job done.
And the idea that a company wants to ‘retain people with certain skill sets’ so they have to pay bonuses? Their skill set has managed to just about bankrupt the company and the boss wants to retain them?
I am so glad we have these geniuses (Rudy included) telling us how profitable companies work. Keep up the good work.
(Don’t worry, the egg will eventually wash off.)
January 30th, 2009 at 12:28 pm“Giuliani Defends Wall Street Bonuses While Slamming Tax Cuts For The Poor”
Why of course he does, how else is he going to get bribes and kickbacks.
January 30th, 2009 at 12:44 pmIs anyone else offended by this putz’s idea that the middle class economy is basically a tip jug?
January 30th, 2009 at 12:54 pmIf “welfare” is getting something you don’t deserve, then what do you call the CEO who drives a car he didn’t build, on streets he didn’t pave, to a building he didn’t construct?
January 30th, 2009 at 1:04 pmHow many primaries did you even come close to making any kind of showing in last year? Oh, yeah, none. Go away.
January 30th, 2009 at 1:05 pmRudynomics
Welfare for the poor….NO WAY.
Corporate welfare….OK
Does that make him a socialist if it works for the corporate rich?????
January 30th, 2009 at 1:07 pmHe’s got to be joking. Welfare to the wealthy is ok, because they spend it in restaurants, thereby employing the lower class. But welfare to the poor would be wrong, because the wealthy don’t get anything out of it?
January 30th, 2009 at 1:12 pmSounds like Rudy is a little jealous of Obama? We all know Hannity is just ignorant and facts are irrelevant as long as he can get any idiot to agree with the words he pulls outta his butt . .
But Rudy has got to be envious of Obama. His daughter won’t even speak to him and she CAMPAIGNED FOR OBAMA!
I mean when your own children don’t put their faith in your judgment, how do you expect the American people to vote for you??
Errrh, that’s right, they DIDN’T! The adulterer couldn’t even carry Flordia, even with Hannity’s partisan campaigning . .
January 30th, 2009 at 1:29 pmHey Giulianni, How did you know building WTC7 was going to collapse?
January 30th, 2009 at 1:36 pmRepublicans like Giuliani are still asleep. They are not getting the message that the country wants “change”. The GOP is on a fast track for another 50 years as minority party.
January 30th, 2009 at 1:37 pmnot to mention that these people also pay sales tax, maybe not on food, (btw, if it were up to Republicans, they would) but on other necessities…so this welfare canard is exactly that, a canard to distract people away from the WELFARE we’ve given to Wall Street deadbeats who came crying to the government they’ve always assailed for a bailout, not a LOAN, but a BAILOUT…
January 30th, 2009 at 1:57 pmwell perhaps not the GOP wouldn’t want to tax food…edit*
January 30th, 2009 at 2:22 pmWho is Rudy kidding when he says tax cuts for the poor? I wasn’t born yesterday.
Richest Americans’ Income Doubled as Tax Rate Slashed
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ar5uxG_wV87A&refer=us
January 30th, 2009 at 3:32 pmI remember Hannity was in tears when it was explained to him that Rudy could not “run the table” one night in February and win Floriday, NJ, NY etc and vault over the hated Mccain. He lambasted McCain at every opportunity. Rudy and Hannity are little NY Slip Mahoney(from Bowery Boys) “tough guys” who probably had their lunch taken from them each day in jr. high. They do enjoy cigar bars, rare steaks, Yankee games etc.
January 30th, 2009 at 3:33 pmLOL! Wait a second–we need to give out million-dollar bonuses to underperforming scumbags on Wall Street simply because that money needs to be spent? If that’s your worry, Rudy, then give million-dollar bonuses to policemen, firemen and teachers. They’ll spend it. They go to restaurants. And they deserve it.
January 30th, 2009 at 3:33 pmTypical rightwing thinking every dime the Gov puts into a rich mans pocket is a cause for joy every dime put in a poor mans pocket brings on hysterical rage. Well at least the war on the middle class is going well
January 30th, 2009 at 3:38 pmGuiani said all that and never mentioned 9-11 . . . even once?
January 30th, 2009 at 4:16 pmGood for 9/11, verb, 9/11 man..Let’s see what happens when he becomes FIRST IN LINE AT THE UN-EMPLOYMENT OFFICE !!!
Go buy a new dress fool and shut up forever…
January 30th, 2009 at 4:44 pmwell i’m just gonna spend my $4.5 mil bonus on some sexy french lingerie (made in china !), wanna tag along rudie ?
January 30th, 2009 at 5:14 pmJanuary 30th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Rudy Guiliani and the rest of the supply siders are our enemies. They are robbing the working people of America every day. The whole bail out situation was caused by their greed, and then smoothly calculated as the final act of the most corrupt, anti American administration in history. These peole are despicable. They put themselves before the people who have made America such a great nation. Each and everyday they rise from their beds and give the rest of us the friggin bird. Cut these traitors off already!!!
January 30th, 2009 at 9:12 pmHow can you take seriously a guy who looks like the Joker and talks like Sylvester the Cat.
Thee-E-O bonutheth to th-timulate the economy? Dethpicable.
January 30th, 2009 at 10:21 pmEven if the Wall Street jerks are spending their bonuses, they get to enjoy the things they spend the money on, most of which is going out to eat, so the waiter gets a tip, and the owner of the restaurant profits. Or on things made in China, or other foreign countries. European sports cars for example.
A small number of people spending large bonuses on services and products doesn’t add much to the tax revenues either.
I just don’t see Rudy’s point.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:34 pmGIve the billions to the poor and middle class. They will spend it and the city will have a surplus. And every one will have enough contribute build that massive spaceship to send all these conservatives to a galaxy far far away.
January 31st, 2009 at 11:33 amIn another link the 400 richest Americans doubled their income under the rethuglican reign over the past eight years. What did the the other wealthy people gain while stealing from the middle class and poor? Rudi is wearing heals and accepting all he can get from these people. He is one of the enemy because they are not for us.
January 31st, 2009 at 12:17 pmThe whole country is waking up to the fact that the GOP only cares about the filthy rich!
January 31st, 2009 at 1:26 pmThe position and power of financial institutions at the heart of a free market economy has exposed its vulnerability to avaritious exploitation. Whilst the rewarding of excellent managment is a fine principle, we are witnessing the wholesale plundering of wealth earned by honest labour, and decline of our civilisation in the psycotic model evidenced in Zimbabwe. The failure of Communism is attributable to its ignorance of human nature, and now the capitalist free market is following the same pathway. It is incumbent on the Government to introduce a more controlled environment, in which the electorate can thrive, or the free world will succumb to robber barons.
January 31st, 2009 at 2:09 pmWith whatever due respect is necessary, Mr. Giuliani, the reduced billions of salary should greatly increase the amount of Corporate Tax – so your argument on behalf of grossly-overpaid CEO and fund-employees is fatally flawed. There is absolutely no reason to pay such exorbitant salaries to anyone. The ‘rule’ that nobody should earn more than the President of their specific Country will result not only in lower salaries and increased Corporate Taxes, but should also have a flow-on to re-establishing overall pricing of everything. production costs of raw material should decrease, resulting in lower production costs, and thus establishing lower selling price. The ‘Rich’ will still want their toys, but they will only be able to pay less for them……. ‘Everything’ in terms of the busness cycle remains the same, simply cheaper !!.
Can you swallow that, Mr. Giuliani ?
January 31st, 2009 at 2:20 pmI’m no fan of the Democrats but I am so damned sick of the Republican party. What are they? Nothing more than hitmen for the dreams and desires of the filthy rich and corporate interests. They are blind to the death and destruction they’ve caused. I don’t want the Republican party to be merely voted out of office. I want them totally removed from politics and replaced by sane libertarians. Actually I’d like to see entirely new political parties and these 2 old parties on the trash heap of history where they belong.
February 1st, 2009 at 12:44 pmwhile wall st served as the middle man -
the governemnt created the liquidity that fueled the bubble-
and its the stupid americans who overleveraged themselves that caused the problem.
FACE IT – its the losses on those overpayed for house and charged up their credit cards and now cant afford it that got us into this mess
if they kenpt making pmts – wll st wouldnt have losses.
should we ask casinos to give back all its earning to the losers who gambled their lives away
March 19th, 2009 at 2:58 pm