This Week: Will's Law and Agreeable Auxiliaries
By Nicole Belle Sunday Mar 30, 2008 2:31pm
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Worlds collided on Sunday and I found myself actually agreeing with George Will. Apparently, EVERYONE on the This Week with George Stephanopoulos agreed with George Will when he posited Will's Law:
WILL: Can I propose Will’s Law? We can all agree on this. Three liberals and Will. Will’s Law is that no company, such as JPMorgan now, or BearStearns, that is getting substantial subvention from the federal government shall be allowed to pay any of its executives for than the GS-15, that’s $124,000. That would stop the run to Washington.
REICH: That sounds pretty good to me.
[crosstalk]
REICH: Let me say one other thing. I think the Will’s Law ought to be expanded to include oil companies should not get extra money from the government, pharmaceutical companies should not have their research and development subsidized by the government. We should have no corporate welfare, at all in this country.
WILL: For it.
REICH: Well, good. Well, let’s go forward. I think we have a great deal of agreement.
Absolutely brilliant. Can you imagine how Kenny Boy Lay would have reacted if he had to accept a mere $124K during the Enron scandal?
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That is the best idea I have ever heard from a weekend news show.
hear, hear! End the (corporate) welfare nanny-state!
I heard that too, and was equally surprised. Though I think there have been other times in recent years where I thought Will was making sense. I choose to think that it's a sign of A) him getting a little more moderate with age and B) the GOP having moved so far into Crazy Town that Will is trying to establish an estate in the exurbs.
Why wont the Democrats in Congress put this up for a vote? This way all the right wingers will have to be on record that they are for "Socialism". They will have to admit that it's ok for private companies to get govt. welfare/bailouts and the average American can go F themselves.
Wake up Reid and Pelosi and do your jobs!
I haven't been able to take George Will's seriously since he wrote columns snickering about Hillary's vast right-wing conspiracy, while he was denouncing a vast liberal cabal cancelling his cable show no one ever heard of.
There was no invisible hand of the marketplace invoked then.
Something tells me that all the GS-15's would suddenly get a whopper of a pay raise.
Yeah Man!
http://tinyurl.com/2m2wx5
Sign me up too on this one!
US CEO's have been making money hand over fist at tax payer's expense for far too long. American CEOs have been making on up to 600 times bigger salaries than their foreign counter parts.
Any one think that the Oil Companies should get Federal Subsidies while you're paying $4.00 a gallon for gas?
Great idea. Of course, if Will had any consistency or integrity, he would have included the executives of Blackwater and other military contractors who have raked in billions in pay and equity from the $3 trillion war.
I bet if this were implemented happen, it would take about a week for GS-15 to be increased to $800,000 + pension, benefits and cost of living adjustments.
Will is a Reagan spook. Take whatever he says with a grain of salt.
Great idea.....I mean, if your on welfare getting govt money and start making too much money, the welfare is gone....I think the CEO at JPM Chase could be considered to be making "too much".
I don't agree with George Will on much, but this idea was a stroke of genius!
Great idea. If Will had any consistency or integrity, he'd include the executives of Blackwater and other military contractors, who have taken many more billions in taxpayer cash than anybody at Bear Stearns or JPMorgan.
And if this were actually implemented, I bet it would take about a week for GS-15 to be bumped up to $800,000 + pension, benefits and cost of living increases.
Double post - sorry.
I can now count on one finger, the times I have agreed George Will.
One time is much better than none.
Reich's addendum is even better:
NO CORPORATE WELFARE, P-E-R-I-O-D.
Democratsrule @ 4:
They're for CORPORATE Socialism only. The rest of us can go f-off.
Democratsrule @ 4:
They are.
Thanks for the votes but in order for us to serve you better we have to sacrifice and make sure our millions are secure first.
Well, it's been said that a broken clock is right twice a day. Maybe that means that George still has one good idea left in him.
Yellow Elephant Safari @ 18:
Since when did what George Will is suggesting become an original idea?
Are Americans that out of touch and illiterate?
I sure hope not.
Even a blind pig finds an acorn if he roots around long enough.
Will isn't an idiot. Sure he often plays one on tv, but even he has to admit that things have got to change.
That is Will's idea of a joke.
Funny huh?
This is nothing but intellectual cover. Will knows that the bailout is inevitable but wants to maintain cover for when the argument turns from socialized losses to privatized profits. He can then say that he was against bailouts so that his privatization of "free market" profit argument can't be countered despite the massive bailout which will have occurred over similar mumbled protests of "true" conservatives (who, regrettably, took the cash in spite of their "reservations").
The comment from GWill that really got to me was his complaint that: [paraphrasing] the problem with the Democrats is that they want this whole process to be fair. If we just did winner take all primaries it would be easier, he said. He just didn't think it was so necessary to worry about this whole "fairness" thing.
And nobody on the panel said: "that's the difference between RepublicanConservatives and DemocratLiberals, America. Right there in a nutshell -- now go vote."
So finally it comes full circle ..
The REAL Conservative agreeing with the Progressives ..
In my view that's the best hope this country has left.
I'd like to propose "JEFF'S LAW".
Jeff's Law states that when a senior executive leaves a corporation and his severance package compensation is in excess of ten million dollars, said compensation shall be converted into an equal dollar value of company stock, and shall remain in stock shares held in private-party escrow for a period of three years past the date of severence before it can be converted into cash.
This way, any corporate executive with a lick of sense will make damn sure their company is on a sound financial footing PRIOR to their departure...no limit on compensation, but no more "golden parachutes" while investors are left holdin the bag.
Totally brilliant. Let's start a petition!
Our commander-in-chief not only has a degree in business, he threw one of the best balls for a President ever at the opening game. Doesn't that give you at least a little bit of hope?
I would even add a critria that the rest of world go by is that CEO make only 20% above their employees, otherwise will bail them out if doing so doesn't effect the workers?
I like the Jeff's law really well!
He does realise that that makes him what used to be known as a conservative but is now called a Godless liberal, right? murdoch is going swift-boat his ass.
The same rules should apply to any CEO of ANY publicly held company with ANY special treatment from the (my) federal government. Jeff's Law is excellent !
[Deleted. Bush is Ossama, name changing is not going to fly here-Sitemonitor]
this is fine and dandy, and despite coming from Will and neoliberal buddy, surprisingly, it isn't a horrible idea.
but, as usual, they miss the bigger issue: obscene CEO pay compensation, period. subvention aside, let's talk about the feudal corporatocracy and the rise of the corporate-Lords.
how, as a country, have we stood by and watched as CEOs lived the gilded lifestyle while their employees suffer on a daily basis?
why, in america, have we allowed a system to survive that creates the working poor? no one who works in america should live in squalor, eat cat food for sustenance and have to decide between medication or food. yet this is where we find ourselves.
so, i am glad that WIll and Reich decide to chat this subject up, but in their privileged live they barely comprehend the extent of the problem. as, to them, 124k is probably tough to scrape by on.
I'll take $124,000 and a bail out. I'd cost far less than $30 million, and $124,000 is 3 times what I earn. Oh, the perils of a conscience.
I agree with Will's Law. But I wish it were that easy. Executives that could only make $124,000 would bolt in a heartbeat, assuming even if you could enforce Will's Law, which would be difficult considering they all have binding contracts already in place. The company's best assets, those they can't afford to lose, would all be gone. What do you do then to stay afloat- in the case of Bear for instance- call qualified guys at Goldman? "Hey man, we'd really like to have you over here at Bear, how does a buck and a quarter sound?"..... Hello, ...hello?!?
I can't believe this is the "Free Market" economy where ideas and business that are deemed unsustainable are left to rot by the wayside. This whole sub-prime fiasco made LOADS of money for the companies that are now suffering for investing so heavily in it. By their own definition shouldn't they be weeded out and the companies with the foresight NOT to ignore and bypass common sense be allowed to step into the forfront? The dinosaurs died out for a reason, and these companies should to. Heck, they created the meteor that caused their own demise. Why should I bail them out ESPECIALLY when I didn't see one cent of the profits AND most of that profit has flowed out of the country?
As was pointed out earlier, socialism is good for corporations (airlines anyone?) but not good for citizens. What kind of f-ed up logic is that?
$124,000 in NYC? Who could live on that?
what the fuck is subvention?
How about this:
NO FUCKING TAXPAYER-FUNDED BAILOUTS OF ANY KIND!
MountainMan23 @ 24:
LOL - That was what Hitleian POPULISM used to take power.
I can't take Populism from conservatives.
And any idea of an alience beteen the 'conservatives' and the 'progresives'...
DANGER DANGER WILL ROBINSON.
BRILLIANT. ALL FOR IT.
L.A. Confidential @ 27:
Yore durn tootin' - a teeny weeny bit.
Let him get a gig as the business manager for a little league team, he can coach pitching on the side.
For much, much less than $124 k.
I agree 100%.
as a taxpayer, I pay for food stamp recipients' food stamps.
there are rules in place that, as a taxpayer, make me comfortable.
such as "you can't use your foodies to buy drugs."
there are also processes in place that make inappropriate use of food stamps very difficult for the food stamp recipient.
such as, its pretty damn hard to find a crack dealer willing to borrow a food stamp user's food stamp debit card for a couple hours in exchange for a baggy of crack.
food stamps are, per client, on average about $60 - $180. granted when you look at the raw number of people receiving food stamps, the numbers add up pretty quickly but still.... $60 to $180. its chump change.
we gave JP/Bear $29 Billion in taxpayer money. we gave a couple dozen senior executives and board members $29 Billion, in food stamps. for lack of a better word.
with no guidelines, no laws for appropriate use of the funding, and no failsafes to prevent inappropriate use. stupid, stupid, stupid...
thank you George Will for suggesting procedures and failsafes.
But that would go against the Republican ideal of destroying the middle class and making them a slave to business. I mean, that would go against the Republican ideal of free market. This would never get passed by a single Republican and probably most Democrats.
Pretty odd ideas from the likes of George Will... Not that these aren't decent enough ideas in and of themselves... It's just that coming from mouth of George Will, it sounds more like someone blowing smoke up my ass... I mean, do you really believe someone like George Will actually believes any of this populist 'lets reign in the greed mongers' spiel he puttin out there??? JD
I generally have a problem with Will`s views,but I`m all for this current Will`s Law,with the added laws of no corporate welfare.Those are the creeps who are stealing us blind.If we had the money from the dot coms S&L rips,the junk bonds and Enrons, we wouldn`t be in this mess;and Bush`s brother would be in the slam with Charlie Keating. Seems like a good start.
CoIntelPro - against Divisive Democrats @ 39:
But if a taxpayer doesn't have a girlfriend do we get taxpayer funded bailouts?
Pipe dreams.
Samson- @ 33:
Wall Street man, thats why.
publicly traded companies are neither beholden to the customer, nor the employee. they are beholden to the shareholder, and the board.
Wal Mart can have a terrible year as far as sales go, and can get sued a dozen times in big media frenzy court disputes. but as long as the CEO works with the finance team to make sure they keep getting suckers to "invest" in them, and as long as he works with the finance team to re-invest those monies into other stocks... Wal Marts financials go up.
and the "corporatocrats" as you call them, are rewarded for their creativity. its a pretty small orgy, in a pretty big pile of money.
L.A. Confidential @ 27:
Yeah,"W,"the man who let Sammy Sosa go to the CUBS for next to nada, and a player to be named later.Nothing he does gives me hope.
Hannah Hussein @ 15:
I usually use just one finger to indicate my level of agreement with Will, as well.
This is astonishing. I expect him to advocate for public healthcare next. I'd better go check to see if Hell is frozen.
Yea... like that'll happen before PIGS FLY.
Yes, I heard Will make the GS-15 pay proposal and I am heartened to see it the source of further commentary. How brilliant. How much money is enough for the Republican CEO's? Last week on the New Hour there was a story about the deplorable conditions under which people live in Bangladesh. Floods, droughts and every form of deprivation. But one soaring highlight was the assistance provided by Bill Gates and other philanthropic Americans. I was so proud of the America we can be. Again I ask, how much is enough money for these overpaid executives when dollars raised collectively can do so much good? The stockholders should answer that question.
The typo (word omission) in the story is bugging me.
"..shall be allowed to pay any of its executives for than the GS-15, that’s $124,000"
Shouldn't it say "for more than the GS-15"?
sully18 @ 50:
He knew he was juicing, sully. It was a question of morals, and W took the high road. :)
As they are propping up banks with yet another $100 billion in taxpayer money.
------->>>WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve announced Friday it will auction another $100 billion in April to cash-strapped banks as it continues to combat the effects of a credit crisis.
The central bank said it would make $50 billion available at each of two auctions, on April 7 and April 21.
Through the end of March, the Fed has provided $260 billion in short-term loans to commercial banks through the innovative auction process. It also has employed Depression-era provisions to provide money to investment banks.
**"I report, you decide." (I liked that from the Boosh booing video. Thanks Silentpatriot.)
Sid @ 37:
i don't know, perhaps they'd have to actually bust their humps and work like hell to improve their companies performance thus making every employee's options go up to supplement their incomes? what a concept, executives getting paid for performance rather than ransacking a company, then abandoning it once it's been hollowed out for whosoever's left holding the bag.
kudos to george will for finally making sense about something.
Anyway, nice dream, but that's just not the way America works any longer. Bring out the guillotine.
slippy hussein toad @ 51:
I use my middle finger.
And as for hell freezing over it's actually warm and muggy right now.
I'm for it......too bad the lobbyists will have none of it.
37 Sid Says: $124,000 in NYC? Who could live on that?
===>> I could. Easy. Some people need to learn how to tighten their belts. Then we wouldn't have this sub-prime crisis destroying the world economy.
What about the obnoxious "America is a right of Center Country" he got away with saying?
sully18 @ 50:
No no no...Sosa was traded to the White Sox for Harold Baines. And Sammy was no All-Star at that point (Baines was).
But W is still a dipshit.
Yeah of course, AFTER the Bush admin and it's crony's take from the trough then say "hey, no more corporate welfare"!!!!
In the mean time Joe and Jane blow have to eat it...
dennis @ 35:
There are PLENTY of good leaders that will take that and do better than a good portion of the a--holes that are running corp America now. Look at them!! They're so freakin stupid and greedy, 124k isn't bad money and if one of these dumb bastards bolts because that's all they're going to get then good!! Plenty of good leaders that'll take 124k in a second.
Edwin Hussein (not a scary black Reverend) @ 61:
Not being able to live on $124,000 anywhere in the world is sarcasm right?
If New Yorkers honestly can't live on $124,000 then the joke is on you.
End corporate influence in government by banning lobbyists and shut down K Street.
When Wall Street loses on their stupid, greedy ideas, our government bails them out.
Edwards talked about it and look what happened to him.
This country does not want change.
They want hope for unity which will cover the corporate Senators voting with the gop for corporate interests.
Adapt to this new America.
Sid @ 37:
For your information, fella, the answer to that question is PLENTY!!! (Albeit for many, it's by necessity and not by choice). Perhaps they might not be living what most people might consider a middle-class lifestyle, or living the kind of lifestyle which you would aspire to -- but that's a whole other issue. The fact is that living in New York City on less than $125K per year can be done because many people (myself included) have done and are doing it. For your information, one of the local magazines recently reported that the per capita income for New York City is a whopping $41,805. Even the per capita income quoted for Manhattan alone -- $93,377 -- falls at least $25,000 short of your figure. I myself have been living in New York City for most the past ten years on less than than half of that figure, and within my means to boot! Granted, I don't have any children -- which I acknowledge helps a great deal -- and I also live a considerably more simple lifestyle than many and possibly most people my age which is in part by choice. Nevertheless, the fact is that anyone who claims that they can't possibly live on $125K in New York City is A) seriously lacking in creativity, imagination, intelligence, and/or maturity, B) a spendthrift, C) spoiled, or D) a combination of any or all of the above. If you can't live on $125K per year in New York City, pal...then my guess is that it's at least partially your own fault!
Add to their list, taxpayer funded research grants that produce new discoveries which are then patented (drugs, genetic research, original science) and held as private, commercial intellectual property. We pay for the research, the researchers or their institutions get the patents and we have to pay out the nose for that which rightly belongs to us, in the form of patent medicines, patent diagnostics, specialized medical treatments.....
This country is committing suicide; onr of the ways it is doing it is by corporate welfare.
Here's Will's second law: Get rid of baseball.
I've worked for a couple GS-15s.
They aren't worth what they're paid. And that is just salary, if they live overseas, they get that PLUS a free house.
And, as the punditocracy speaks...nothing changed.
I'm all for it.
AND, Dancer's Law would be to halve that for all MSM pundits who spout their OPINIONS as FACTS and do little to inform the public! In regard to this WILL'S PRONOUNCEMENT he is like that broken clock......
The transcript reads like a group of 5th graders playing "what if?".
WILL: Can I propose Will’s Law? We can all agree on this. Three liberals and Will.
Always so outnumbered. It sucks to be George Will.
Golly, that sounds like a Maximum Wage law. Like they have in socialist Scandinavian countries.
For his next trick, George Will will throw an 82 mph major league curve for a strike on the outside corner.
Mind you, I happen to like Will's Law.
Great Idea! And I'm sure that getting rid of Corporate welfare will start to get some traction when Hell actually starts freezing.
ysbaddaden @ 59:
Let me dis-equivocate my exact grammatical position: if I am using only one finger to indicate approval, I am using that finger.
Let's expand it to ANY company getting a government contract!
Gee, w/o corporate welfare we will probably be watching CEO's jumping out of the windows of skyscrapers---like after the crash of the stock market. Frankly, if you will not give welfare to the individual do not give to a company or corporation.
They laugh about it, because they know it won't happen. At least in the near future it won't....
They should exhume Kenny Boy's body, I still think he is getting paid. The old heart attack routine is too convenient for me. I know if I was sueing Enron I would insist on Exhuming Kenny boy and doing DNA tests.
Can you imagine how Kenny Boy Lay would have reacted if he had to accept a mere $124K during the Enron scandal?
I can imagine his wife squealing like Ned Beatty in "Deliverance," and telling us that she spends more than that on her hair and nails alone.
But then, I don't think Kenny Boy is REALLY taking a dirt nap. Do YOU?
I believe it was that great American statesman and jailbird (Nixon's atty. general John Mitchell) who said, and this is applicable in Will's case: "Watch what we do, not what we say."
And, yes, I suppose the way this next election is likely to go, Ken Lay will never be able to come out of hiding. I don't think McW. can pull that off alone, not without another conservative majority in both houses. That would require simply too many plane crashes.
84 What makes you think kenny is dead? Who is paying george to say these crazy things? Or is this just the start of ol "we were on your side the whole time" brain washing campaign aimed at the less attentive among us who are easily distracted by shiny things. I would not believe george if he told me we were being attacked by indians even if there was an arrow stuck in his forehead and whats left of that cheap hair piece was gone!
Wow, for a brief moment the planets aligned.
There should be no public moneys subsidizing any private business whatever and any politician who has supported it ever should have all his/her assets seized to reimburse the taxpayers and should spend the rest of his/her natural life in forced labor to compensate their victims - us. Misuse of public law for the benefit of the political class is tyranny and should be swiftly dealt with by the employers of the government. The pseudo-religious millionaire televangelists who support the crooked politicians should similarly tasked as collaborators.
The entire felony war in Iraq was never anything more than a pretext to put hundreds of billions into the companies owned or controlled by the people who promoted it. Iraq has never been and was never likely to be a threat to any legitimate American interest. That the war promoters could sell the idea of forcing democracy on a 6,000 year old collection of waring tribes is testimony to the accuracy of their estimation of the stupidity of the taxpaying supplier of the cream of its youth to their crooked designs of endless, "profitable," felony war.
Wake up America!
will had a good idea
and the devil says "why is it so cold here?"
Kind of weird, why not the executive ESE series instead of GS-15?
Perhaps Will doesn't know what it is.
I think George Will just had an oops moment.
Dr. Acula @ 16:
"Corporate Soclialism?" Let's say the Word of the Day, boys and girls: Fascism.
"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power...
"...Statistics of the Bureau of Internal Revenue reveal the following amazing figures for 1935: "Ownership of corporate assets: Of all corporations reporting from every part of the Nation, one-tenth of 1 percent of them owned 52 percent of the assets of all of them."
FDR to Congress, 4/29/38
Sleep Tight.
Amazing that someone actually said "corporate welfare". Reagon must be spinning in his grave! I thought welfare only pertained to those desperate folks who needed a meal. CEOs earning seven figures can probably learn to live on a bit less. First time I ever agreed with Will also.
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