Bush Backs Unlimited Compensation For Wall Street CEOs

Today, the White House released a statement criticizing Congress’s potential plan to limit CEO compensation at the companies the federal government is bailing out, firmly standing against any “punitive measures�:

We certainly understand and are sympathetic to the sentiment regarding the pay of CEOs and senior management of these firms, but we have to focus on the problem, and the problem is that we need these firms to participate in the program and sell us this debt. Having punitive measures would provide a disincentive for firms to participate, and that would make the program much less likely to succeed.


CEO compensation and corporate governance in public companies are very important issues � especially when receiving taxpayer support � but we need to be focused on fixing this problem in our markets right now. We can and should return to those issues once we get this legislation passed.

President Bush also released another statement earlier today warning Congress against inserting any “unrelated provisions� � such as help for struggling homeowners � in the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.


The Bush administration’s position is unjustifiable. As ABC News reported: