Want to know what the teabaggers should really be crying about?
By John Amato Wednesday Apr 15, 2009 3:10pmThe idiot brigade is lining up to get on FOX News to call President Obama a fascist while the CEO's that have destroyed their companies still rake in the cash. Stop watching Beck and Hannity and read the news, people!
Your Daily Digby:
Want to know what your CEO made last year? The Executive Paywatch site offers three user-friendly ways to find out. And if you want to have a little fun at the CEO’s expense, play the “Boot The CEO” game and kick the money out of the greedy CEO’s hands.
Their arrogance knows no bounds:
In 2008, despite the worst economic meltdown in over 75 years, U.S. chief executives continued to take home over 300 times more pay than their workers. That’s a gap ten times wider than the gap between top execs and workers that existed just a generation ago.
Corporate boards of directors seem determined to keep this massive gap intact. Most corporations are refusing to make even symbolic gestures toward more common-sense executive compensation.
Remember last fall’s firestorm over executive jets? In 2008, over half America’s big corporations — 104 of the 200 the Wall Street Journal tracked — continued to foot the bill for the personal air travel of their top executives, only three fewer than the year before.
CEOs have to report the personal air travel subsidies they get, along with whatever other perks they receive, as taxable income. Over a third of America’s biggest corporations last year actually gave their executives extra money to pay the taxes on all this perk income.
The dollars devoted to this tax reimbursing — or “grossing up,” as power suits refer to the process — averaged $16,400 last year. That sum might not sound like much, given the millions CEOs take home overall, but, in 2008, average American workers had to labor five months to make $16,400.
The Wall Street Journal doesn’t include perks like free air travel and tax gross-ups in its $7.6 million figure for 2008 CEO “direct compensation.” The New York Times $8.4 million total does.
Neither paper’s pay totals for 2008 include the gains CEOs registered last year cashing out the stock options they collected in previous years. These cashouts generated some staggering personal paydays.
Occidental Petroleum’s Ray Irani, for instance, took home $49.9 million in “total direct compensation,” according to the Wall Street Journal figures. But he gained another $215.9 million in 2008 from options and other long-term “incentives” that Occidental had stuffed in his personal portfolio before last year.
Corporate boards have essentially created what amounts to a perpetual motion pay machine that year in and year out gins up millions in executive compensation, no matter what may be happening economically in the real world.
In “good” times, with revenues and profits up, boards hand executives stock awards and cash bonuses as rewards for their fine “performance.” In hard times, boards keep the stock awards coming — as an incentive to stick around and perform better in the future.
And thus continues the delusion that the wealthy are the most productive members of society which requires that they be allowed to dictate the terms by which the burden of their failure and mismanagement is borne by others.
The corporate aristocrats are working hard to keep the rubes focused on the big, bad gummint because if they ever realize just how thoroughly they've been scammed by these Masters of the Universe, who knows what might happen?
Read the entire post if you can. The AFL-CIO has a nice site called: Executive PayWatch: CEO Perks Rise as Workers’ Wages, Jobs Wilt
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That the Walgreens down the block has run out of adult diapers?
Well, he is a facist. He has one, last time I looked.
I'm hear all week. Tip your waitress - the lasagna is excellent...
I hear so many mixed messages on whether Obama is a fascist like Hitler or a socialist like Stalin or Lenin. Just because he inherited a massive deficit, that automatically makes him a socialist or fascist?
It makes perfect sense... to those who are mildly retarded, never attended school past 5th grade, hate minorities, and married someone closely related to them.
It is not like logic and facts ever managed to get in the way of the average conservative thought process.
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to me.
This is the Royal class our forefathers fled to form this country. Something lost on the tea baggers who couldn't buy a clue.
These tea baggers protesting "against socialism" would still be kvetching even if the deficit and nat'l debt was down to $0 or above.
I didn't hear anything about socialism when Clinton was president, but it's probably easier to judge the "black guy" more harshly.
Understandably, Clinton reduced the deficit to the point of a surplus by "taxing and spending" that apparently worked. Who knew? How could a conservative nowadays convey what really works for the economy?
Reagan and the Bushes were largely the result of massive debts.
What's further outrageous is Michael Steele ranting that "it is patriot NOT to pay taxes". I wouldn't be too surprised if either he or another Republican said "it's patriotic NOT to file your taxes".
I can't think of any other nation in the international community that kvetches about taxes like many Americans do today.
So, is it really unpatriotic to have a fair tax, universal health care, etc.??
too, and quit fighting for the very people that put them in this mess. It's like some kind of alternate universe over their on the right where up is down or something. I can't wrap my head around it. Hell, the corporate fat cats that these guys are going to bat for are among the biggest socialists in the country. The only time they bitch is when some money might actually go the other way and help the majority of the people.
MSNBC: ATF Faces Off With NRA In Growing Gun Debate
People seem either uninformed or misinformed to the point they really do "cling to guns and religion." Such people overthink and speculate the wrong ideas and not even come up with a clue of the truth.
Arent these CEOs the ones that repubs want to cut taxes for? its seems odd to me. repubs cut taxes for these groups, these people grow in wealth and yet no new jobs no wealth has been generated in america from it. and they are mad at the amount of taxes the govt is imposing? are they protesting the right people?
Do these Republicans nowadays forget that the tax rate for rich people and corporations were a lot higher than either Bush, Jr.'s or Obama's? - Even Reagan had higher taxes for rich people and corporations (at least to some degree).
That all they have left to drink is herbal tea?
I wish the people with brains could get equal air time on Faux news. These tea baggers voted for the people who got us in all the trouble we're in. I'm sick of them get any spotlight. I just wish somebody could put the brakes on this stupidity just like people such as Dashell Hammett did to Joe McCarthy.
the tea baggers should be crying about the TAX havens use/provided to hide profits to avoid taxation. they should be crying about the "cheap labor" allowed into this country that is subsidized by TAX payers
and undercut legal labor. they should be crying the bailouts/TARP brought to the obama administration.
they may have plenty to cry about they should be crying about what wall Street is getting away with.
Had a little bit about that tonight.
About 100Billion in Tax Evasion by US companies, that then is paid by the U.S. taxpayers.
Personally, I was glad to hear about at least some "protests" disrupted by a lack of "permits" to dump their shit. Duh!
And, I hope the dip-fuck who threw shit over the fence onto the White House lawn (and caused an evacuation, tax $$$$ fuck head) gets some fucking balls stuffed into his mouth. Oh, that's right, we can't do that anymore.
Peace.
We definitely are hollering about the CEO bailout-and-bonus scam. This is a good time to purchase one cheap share of stock in each one of these sorry companies and give them hell at annual-meeting time.
In the nearest media center to me, the teabaggers were black and white, an amazing and wonderful thing in a Southern city. The B-and-B issue was posted on many of the signs.
The big anti-Obama issue is that "change we can believe in" sloganeering. Changing out Bush for Obama and then getting screwed from behind in the wallet pocket made many Obama voters, as well as non-racist sympathizers from other voting blocs, purely postal with fury.
We generally just call him a Marxist.
It's much more precise.
you have NO idea what you're talking about do you? you're being fooled again by wall street.paulson/BUSH brought the financial crisis,economic crisis,unemployment and automaker
crisis to the Obama administration. my guess your NOT interested in facts but being empowered
by deception/cultural battles. obama is trying to bring "the people" back into the process. this free market Darwinian Capitalism by wallStreet has caused a lot of systemic/collateral damage.
it is a known fact that trolls can only master a handful of human words. Anything above 2 syllables is completely lost in their itsy bitsy brains. In fact, there are some studies which refute Trolls having brains at all, but rather propose they (trolls) are governed by a set of relatively evolved ganglia.
Why do you think FOX et al picked the term "TEA BAG?" 2 words, 1 syllable each: Bam!... Even if they were aware of the sexual connotations of the term, they assumed the risk. Because they (FOX et al) knew damn well it was the only workable combination of words, that would be able to permeate through the feeble minds of their troll audience in time for tax day.
being, you and your sister/wife?
It's got to be way past your bedtime and I'm going to guess
that if it isn't that the frat house needs to be picked up after your
awesome party last night.
Run along now and let the intelligent people that actually read books have a discussion.
the nut-sackers to be able to comprehend what they read do you? That's why they listen to Tushy Limpballs and Beck, to explain it all to them.
any attention paid to the protests against the Iraq war in the past 8 years!!! Can you imagine how many people would have been arrested for protesting like they have done today? Their hypocrisy is unbelievable...........and it appears they are "mostly" white folk doing the protesting.............imagine!!!
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The sign from the Ron Paulers
→ → →[ http://www.flickr.com/photos/37467119@N06/344... ]
that the people in that picture were most likely missing work...
The common right winger is loonie enough, but libertarians (esp. the Paulistas) take it a step further. You haven't lived until you have been lectured on the lack of merit of government and social welfare institutions by a libertarian on disability. It simply baffles the mind...
√... They're extremely happy over at dailypaul... :-P
the one on the left certainly hasn't missed a meal.
Oh, the luscious irony of the libertarian hypocrite.
baby jesus will only tea bag if its requested
They can not think for themselves so they need someone to think for them...
Can you believe persons which demonstrate against a person which gave them what they were bitch about not receiving and doing it for the very persons which are sticking us with their corporate bills..
I think this Faux news tea bag crap is hilarious , these people are the stupidest most ignorant people on the planet . Is an absolute joy watching the right wing nuts go berserk .
I'm too terrified to walk out of my own front door.
They're demonstrating outside, I think they're gonna start the Third World War
And I've been to my local head shrinker, to help classify my disease
He says it's one of the cases of acute schiophrenia he sees.
Well the milkman's a spy and the grocer keeps on following me
And the woman next door's an undercover for the KGB
And the man from the Social Security keeps on invading my privacy
Oh, there ain't no cure for acute schizophrenia disease
I got acute schiophrenia, paranoia too
Schizophrenia, schizophrenia
I've got it, you've got it, we can't lose
These acute schizophrenia blues!
--- Teabagger (by way of Ray Davies)
Executives, CEOs
THESE are the people we should ALL be Tea-Bagging.
INSTEAD, FOX NEWS has all these dummies out there doing the execs dirty work...
"Dont tax the RICH... their the ones who CREATE JOBS..."
What a croc.
I one worked at a huge international company. But everyone could see it was starting to fall apart.
The company hadn't invested in new products for 20 years.
Facilities were falling apart.
There was NO training or improvement al all.
STILL, the EXECS got theirs. Right up until the end.
They had put the company on autopilot while they all partied and laughed and collected their perks and checks.
Finally, when the company was crashing, they bailed out on their sweet deals...
and the rest of us went down in flames...
See how the rich created jobs.
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