McConnell misleadingly suggests he favored Wall Street salary caps.
McConnell misleadingly suggests he favored Wall Street salary caps.
This afternoon on CNN, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) pretended as though he had favored capping the salaries of bankers whose firms accepted TARP funds, claiming that his position has been that bailed-out companies “are going to have to operate in a different sort of way.” When host Wolf Blitzer asked whether Congress should have passed salary caps on bailout recipients, McConnell acts as though he had been in favor of such a proposal:
BLITZER: Should the Congress — and you are the leader of the Republicans in the Senate — have passed salary caps on these bailed out companies?
McCONNELL: We certainly had a chance with the amendment by Senator Snowe to prevent this kind of bonuses from being paid. But look, the day-to-day responsibility of oversight of TARP funds is at the Treasury Department.
Watch it:
McConnell is certainly right: Congress did have a chance to pass salary caps. However, he opposed such a move at the time, telling ABC News, “I really don’t want the government to take over these businesses and start telling them everything about what they can do. … We have to resist the temptation to basically dictate to these businesses how to run every aspect of their operation.” On CNN today, McConnell accused AIG of “trying to have it both ways.” Pot, meet kettle.
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“I’m sorry, Wolf, can you understand me with my foot in my mouth and my head up my arse?”
March 17th, 2009 at 6:18 pmPuppy Blitzer should have had the ABC clip. Why don’t these so called professionsal learn from a fake news cast like The Daily Show. Stewart would have blasted that 2 faced SOB with his own words.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:22 pmsomeone ought to give the lipless wonder mc connell a crash course in business. when an entity owns 81% of a company (in this case the american taxpayers and AIG) the major shareholder (in this case the american taxpayers) gets to call the shots.
how can these assclowns claim to be “pro-business” when they don’t even know the fundamentals of business?
March 17th, 2009 at 6:25 pmThe Republican strategy right now is to water down whatever legislation is passed so that it will be less effective than it might otherwise have been. And then to complain about the legislation being watered down. The party stands for nothing other than obstruction. The put politics over our national interest. It is rather sad.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:25 pma leftover from 43’s regime crowing about “oversight”?
someone ought to tell lipless mc connell he’s a few years too late on that call.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:29 pmFrackking turtle piece of crap
March 17th, 2009 at 6:33 pmIf I remember right and i think I do when obama asked thata cap at 5000,000 be placed on saleries of execs the rethugs were all against it even grammpy mccain said it waz unfair to do this now what are they saying we too were for a cap on saleries .oh yeah hey putz blitzer go to the jon stewart school of interviewin people and stuff ya just might learn urself something.. then again your just payed not to want to learn anything
March 17th, 2009 at 6:33 pmTristle trasul thrusle throne time for this one to come home
March 17th, 2009 at 6:34 pmTrisle trasle thrushl throne time for tis one to come home
March 17th, 2009 at 6:35 pmLying sacks of D.C. floating turds. It’s time for gully washer to clean our hallowed halls of government.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:36 pm.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
… And yet he’s clueless.
.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:38 pmPerhaps Peter, Paul and Mary can come up with a new theme medley – “The Republicans Are Blowin’ in the Wind”. You can’t even nail these guys down with a wooden stake!
March 17th, 2009 at 6:38 pmIs Blitzer losing it? He never seems to be on the right page or perhaps it’s intentional since he’s a rabid Republican. He’s totally lost credibility and seems to be in a perpetual brain fart.
What can you say about old lady McConnell? This man speaks with a reverberating ‘waddle’ so it’s hard to know what the hell he’s ever saying. He needs a good plastic surgeon immediately if he believes he will ever be taken seriously.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:39 pm“I really don’t want the government to take over these businesses and start telling them everything about what they can do. … We have to resist the temptation to basically dictate to these businesses how to run every aspect of their operation.”
Here we see a Republican lying with the False Premise technique. Nobody is suggesting that the government should “dictate to these businesses how to run every aspect of their operation.” The taxpayers want certain aspects of the business controlled by someone other than AIG people, but that is not the same as saying we want everything about their business controlled by the government. As usual, a Republican is presenting the situation as something that it isn’t in order to justify letting a business do whatever the hell it wants to do.
Senator McConnell, you, sir, are a liar.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:40 pmWhere is that man’s chin?
March 17th, 2009 at 6:40 pmq:
March 17th, 2009 at 6:40 pm“Where is that man’s chin?”
A:
Still firmly lodged up 43’s arse.
dbadass,
March 17th, 2009 at 6:41 pmLet’s leave the “FAT JOKES” for Laura Ingrate.
McCONNELL: We certainly had a chance with the amendment by Senator Snowe to prevent this kind of bonuses from being paid.
McConnell must believe the rest of America is a stupid as his constituents.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:41 pmI no longer permit CNN to be viewed in my household. Ever since Lou, the pathological Liar Dobbs, professed to be an Independent (liar!) and continues his nightly ridiculous & frenzied “maniacal rants”, he’s no longer welcome in my house – and that goes for the rest of the CNN fascist sycophants and media whores, too.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:42 pmLost it in a butt squeak?
March 17th, 2009 at 6:42 pmBozo: Methinks it’s more a case of McConnell channeling about a dozen dead people’s waddles.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:43 pmSince companies like AIG have shown they really have no idea of how to run their business, just what is so flipping wrong with the idea of tossing out the incompetents?
Republicans claim government can’t run anything. Compared to the clowns running Wall Street debacle the postman in Catburp, NH has a better chance of getting it right.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:46 pmsomeone ought to smarten up lipless mitch to the fact that 97% of this country aren’t inbred morons like the rubes who keep voting him into office.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:49 pmclaiming that his position has been that bailed-out companies “are going to have to operate in a different sort of way.”
Translation: Next time we are going to make damn sure they don’t get caught.
March 17th, 2009 at 7:27 pmTypical have-my-cake-and-eat-it-too mentality of the republican party!
March 17th, 2009 at 7:39 pmMcConnell, a typical RepubliCon liar. One day Kentucky will wake up and realize they are represented by a liar.
March 17th, 2009 at 7:51 pm“House GOP’s AIG plan simply recycles what Obama is already doing.”
This is just getting nauseating of the blame game on AIG [All In Greed} and the bonus issue. I saw this nugget on TPMmuckraker:
Washington can have a woefully short memory. But Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) remember what TPMDC reported on just last month: their proposal to force bailed-out companies to rescind executive bonuses could have made it into the stimulus bill, but was stripped out by Democratic leaders at the last minute
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/03/senators-to-geithner-you-could-have-backed-our-bonus-reforms.php
Now, had the lawmakers simply not stripped this from the stimulus bill, would we have this discussion on this issue of paying out excessive bonusues from companies such as AIG, Lehman Bros, and others that took the TARP money when they simply would have been banned to do so?
On a side note: Thank you Rep. Frank for calling a spade a spade on NPR last night when he said that much of this mess of the bailout issue was on the watches of Paulson-Bush Administration. Too much of the media and the Party of No are blaming Obama when this was not on Obama’s watch. But, the Obama Administration and the lawmakers have to put an end of corporate abuse of taxpayers’ money so that another bank will not do the same.
March 17th, 2009 at 7:54 pmI watched this on Wulf Blitzes this afternoon, and it was clear Mitchy was lying. His lips were moving.
March 17th, 2009 at 8:30 pmBecca, becca, howl at the moon, girl. It’s gonna take some time for Cat’s CUSTOMERS to start ordering MACHINES. Geez.
March 17th, 2009 at 8:31 pmSo Caterpillar chose more layoffs. Point your angry finger at Caterpillar. Not The President.
March 17th, 2009 at 8:38 pmThe more these guys talk and the more AIG etc. flounder the easier it is to make the argument for nationalization. We’re getting close to a tipping point. Hopefully it’s in the direction of an enraged public backing the idea of taking these banks over.
http://www.pufferfishblog.com/
March 17th, 2009 at 8:52 pmOMG! WOW! McConnell trying to pass the buck to the treasury dept. is just appalling! Hypocritical and full of shyte these GOPHERS are!
March 17th, 2009 at 11:03 pmRebecca Lobo Says:
Obama said in February the stimulus plan would enable Caterpillar to hire, but the company just announced a third round of layoffs …
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
And another wingnut says WWWWWWAAAAAAHHHHHHHH I just love the smell of desperation from Planet Wingnut.
March 17th, 2009 at 11:37 pmWhere did McConnell try to say that he supported salary caps? The amendment he’s referring to would have penalized companies that paid bonuses greater than $100,000 to executives after getting bailout money. This has nothing to do with the salary cap. All of this ( both the salary cap and the bonus cap), of course, was left out of the final stimulus bill. Considering that republicans don’t hold the executive branch, the house, or the senate, how is that possible? Only republicans would want to eliminate these safe guards, right!?! Nope, although it breezed through the senate it died in committee in the house, where republicans have about as much power as a mouse at a cat convention. Keep grasping at your straw men.
March 18th, 2009 at 12:57 pm