Obama Reins in Wall Street Excess

President Obama has taken an important step towards bringing fairness and a dose of reality to Wall Street. His decision to limit the annual salaries of top executives at financial firms that receive money through the bailout program to $500,000 per year sends a clear message to the corporate fat cats that we will not use tax dollars to subsidize huge bonuses or dividend payments to stock holders.

It is insensible that the heads of the financial firms that have relied on tax payer dollars to keep their companies afloat continue to receive perks and bonuses on the backs of hard working Americans. It is time that we start reinvesting our resources in the people of this country to provide pathways out of poverty and get people back to work.

In this same vain, I will be re-introducing the Income Equity Act which will limit the tax deductibility of the wages and total compensation packages of corporate executives to 25 times the wages of the lowest paid worker in the corporation. We should not allow the tax code to allow the deduction of massive executive pay packages. I look forward to working with my colleagues and President Obama to pass this legislation.