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From the Today Show Oct. 15, 2009. Dylan Ratigan and Michael Moore slam Wall Street for the latest round of bonuses being paid to their executives after being rescued by our tax dollars.

Lauer: Dylan, let me start with you. There are going to be a lot of confused people out here. The Dow is over 10,000 again. The bonuses are back, but on Main Street you’ve got money still tight, spending is tough, people can’t get mortgages, and unemployment is still a problem. Is it just the reality now that Wall Street and Main Street are completely disconnected?

Ratigan: Largely they were. Unfortunately the government has changed the rules on behalf of Wall St. to allow them access to trillions of our dollars as you and I have discussed, as Michael Moore has documented. When you have access to trillions of dollars of taxpayer money with no strings attached, it's very easy to make a few billion dollars. A billion is only 1/1000 of a trillion and because our government is allowing the indulgence of the risk taking of the trillions of our own money not only is it allowing Wall Street to make the billions, but it is also depriving the rest of our economy out of the use of those funds which is why you see the heart wrenching antidotes that Michael Moore is so good at portraying.

There is a direct connection between those who you see suffering in films that Michael documents and the abdication of duty by our government to allow all the taxpayer money we all work so hard to create to be the plaything, the gambling toy, of the financial industry as opposed to forcing the financial industry to get back to the business of being investors and becoming the next Warren Buffet, actually putting money into the economy as opposed to taking it out.

Lauer: Michael, let me make sure people understand this. The Wall Street Journal report says that firms are going to pay out about a $140 billion dollars in bonuses this year. The year before the economic meltdown, 2007, they paid out about $130 billion, so it’s gone up. How is this news going to go over with people like the ones in your home state Michigan that just found out unemployment is 15.3% in that state?

Moore: Well eventually people aren’t going to take it and I don’t know how many gated communities these people who are taking this $140 billion in bonuses, I don’t know how many castles with moats around them they can build, but I’ll tell you something—there’s an anger that’s building out there and I mean Matt, these people, they burned down our economy. They completely crashed it. And now they're getting rewarded for it. It would be like I burned down your house today and then tomorrow you send me a check for it thanking me. It's absolutely insane that we allow this to happen but not surprising because that’s our capitalist system. They can get away with it because it’s legal. They can get away with it because they can make whatever they want to make. They can take whatever they want to take. There’s no such thing as enough.

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From Sen. Bernie Sanders and Brave New Films.

Bernie Sanders Unfiltered-The Dow and the Down and Out:

While markets surged past 10,000, the official unemployment rate stood near 10 percent. The United States is in a unique historical position. People on top are doing extraordinarily well, but in the real world the middle class is collapsing. The top 1 percent owns more wealth then the bottom 90 percent. CEOs of large corporations earn 400 times what their workers make. That is not what America is supposed to be about. With all the issues we are dealing with -- from health care to global warming to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – please do not forgot what is happening to tens of millions of our brothers and our sisters out there who are struggling hard to keep their heads above water.

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From the Cafferty File:

Goldman Sachs is on track to make the biggest bonus payouts in the company’s 140-year history — according to a report in the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’. Goldman staff in London were reportedly told that they could expect record bonuses if the company — as predicted — has its most profitable year ever.The investment bank’s earnings are up for several reasons — including a lack of competition, along with increased revenue from trading foreign currency, bonds and fixed income products.

Just last week Goldman Sachs repaid the government the $10 billion in TARP money it had received — which would leave it free to do whatever it wants. Yet the company is denying these reports about record bonuses, calling them “pure speculation.” They say they won’t know what bonuses will be until the end of December.

But the company’s CEO told lawmakers recently that the firm is obligated to “ensure that compensation reflects the true performance of the firm and motivates proper behavior.”

Critics say the culture of excessive risk and excessive bonuses is what brought down the financial system in the first place. Also, in light of the ongoing recession, record unemployment, foreclosures and a whole range of economic woes… some might wonder if this would be the best time for Goldman to pay out record bonuses.

It’s believed the firm paid $1 million or more to nearly 1,000 bankers last year.

Here’s my question to you: What message would it send if Goldman Sachs makes the biggest bonus payouts in its 140-year history?

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From Face the Nation March 22, 2009.

Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told CBS News’ Harry Smith on Face The Nation Sunday that the executive branch ought to use its leverage as a majority shareholder in AIG to sue the company for its wrongful use of retention bonuses.

Retention bonuses are to a great extent extortion, Frank argued. “I think there was an element, frankly, with some — not all of them — of almost extortion, where they said, 'We know what you need to know and we will quit if you don’t bribe us,'” Frank said.

He argued that there is a large pool of very talented people who have lost their jobs in the financial crisis and that AIG could replace the bonus recipients (some of whom are responsible for creating the firm's now-toxic assets) rather than bribe them with retention bonuses.

Rough transcript to follow.

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Rick Sanchez shows us some of the debate that took place on the floor of the House today over taxing executives' bonuses. Lawrence O'Donnell was pointing out on Rachel's show that this might not sit too well with Grover Norquist. A whole lot of Republicans just broke his no raising taxes pledge.

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David Shuster takes Senate Republicans to task for their double talk on executive pay and bonuses.

Shuster: Senate Republicans we know it's unsettling to have so many of your constituents outraged and infuriated over something like AIG, but when you claim the government should stop these executive bonuses a month after saying that the government should butt out, that's hypocrisy, and it's wrong.

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David Shuster talks to Barney Frank about the AIG hearing today and the bonuses that the public is worked up over. Frank believes that we should bring a shareholders lawsuit to recover the money.

I'm not happy about AIG handing out these bonuses either but in the bigger scheme of things wonder how much of this is a distraction when compared to the billions that have been paid out to these companies that has not been accounted for. This gives the GOP something to howl over and pretend they care about taxpayers after eight years of them using our government as their feeding trough.

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From Countdown Jonathan Turley weighs in on the outrage over the AIG bonuses. Turley believes that it would be much easier to get the money back from AIG rather than the individuals who received the bonuses. He also notes where some the anger over this should be directed:

Turley: And I think part of the anger here really shouldn't be directed at AIG. We all knew what AIG was. The anger, and legitimately can be directed at Congress and both parties. I mean you have these members going around expressing complete shock. But you know when you give billions and billions of dollars to the Pirates of Penzance you can hardly be surprised if they, you know, spend it on women and grog.

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On The Situation Room, Mitch McConnell, now suddenly cares about executive compensation, in this interview with Wolf Blitzer:

Blitzer: There were efforts over the past several months as all of these various bailouts were going through. At least some wanted to impose some caps on salaries for CEO's and top executives of these major corporations, these major financial institutions who were receiving tax payer money. But a lot of that just simply died. Why?

McConnell: Well there's always been a big debate about just how much you can micro-manage the company and keep it profitable but the cold hard reality is, and the message to American business is if you want tax payer dollars, if you're going to have the government as your partner, you're going to have to operate in a different sort of way. I'm among those who would like to see not very many companies with the government as a partner.

But if you're going to have the government as a partner you can't operate in the same way. Obviously AIG is trying to have it both ways and I want to know directly from the Secretary of the Treasury why they got thirty billion dollars a mere two weeks ago, apparently with no strings attached.

Here's McConnell back on Feb. 4th:

On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., suggested he doesn't like the idea of limiting executive compensation.

"What you have to do, it strikes me, is have some kind of parameters that don't have the government basically running the private business," McConnell said, according to ABC News' Jonathan Karl. "It is a tough challenge. I think we are all appalled by these -- some of these executive salary arrangements and bonus arrangements and perks and all the rest. On the other hand, I really don't want the government to take over these businesses and start telling them everything about what they can do. Then you truly have nationalized the business. So it is a delicate dance to try to prevent blatant abuses and still not have the government as a result of taking an equity position in the government telling them, for example, you can't pay dividends or you can't -- I mean, things that are just ordinary business practices. We have to resist the temptation to basically dictate to these businesses how to run every aspect of their operation.”

As noted as the Huffington Post back in February, the leaders of the GOP were railing against President Obama's proposal to limit executive compensation at a half a million dollars.

h/t NewsPoliticsNews

Rachel talks to Congressman Barney Frank about the AIG bailout and what the plans are to address the bonuses that the public is rightly outraged over.

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Mary Snow on The Situation Room Jan. 2, 2009 making an extremely flawed analogy.

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The panel on Meet the Press of Erin Burnett, Mark Zandi and Steve Forbes responding to the statements made about Wall Street bonuses by President Obama and Sen. Clair McCaskill. Apparently Erin Burnett thinks the silly populists out there just need the shell game Wall Street played with the bonus money explained to them.

MR. GREGORY: In, in just a couple of minutes left, I want to talk about something about everybody understands, and that is bonuses on Wall Street. And we find out this week from the New York comptroller's office that Wall Street allocated $20 billion in bonus money, the same amount as 2004. It created some pretty strong reaction from the White House to Capitol Hill. Watch.

PRES. OBAMA: It is shameful, and part of what we're going to need is for the folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility. You know, the American people understand that we've got a big hole that we've got to dig ourselves out of, but they don't like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole even as they're being asked to fill it up.

SEN. CLAIRE McCASKILL (D-MO): We have a bunch of idiots on Wall Street that are kicking sand in the face of the American taxpayer. They don't get it. These people are idiots. You can't use taxpayer money to pay out $18 billion in bonuses. What planet are these people on?

MR. GREGORY: Fair question, Erin?

MS. BURNETT: I understand the outrage, and you understand the populism. There are, though--well, how should we say this? The taxpayer money is not being used to pay the bonuses. I think people could understand if you work for a company--right? If the three us worked for a company, your guests, and I lost $10 billion but Steve over there, he made a billion dollars. So overall the company actually loses money, but Steve went and did his very darndest for that company and he made money. So should he be paid for his work? That's essentially what we're talking about here. And reasonable people could argue about this, but many reasonable people would conclude, yes, he should be paid for that. And I think, David, you've raised a fair point, which is maybe it's the whole use of the word "bonus."

MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.

MS. BURNETT: If you explained to people this is how they are compensated, that might make a difference. But there is also a fundamental misunderstanding. The taxpayer money isn't being taken and paid out in the form of bonuses. It goes in a, a separate pool, shall we say, a separate account for banks. So maybe people don't care about that distinction, but it is there.

MR. ZANDI: Well, this, this highlights a very significant risk...

MS. BURNETT: Mm-hmm.

MR. ZANDI: ...of the government coming in and giving this money to the banking system, that we're effectively nationally the system in one form or another. And by doing that, then taxpayers, rightfully so, are saying, "Well, I want some control of what you do with this money." So now we're talking about compensation, which I think is a reasonable thing to do, but it is a slippery slope. And one thing I do worry about is that maybe the next thing is that we start making strictures on what kind of loans they can make or what kinds of deals they can fund or can I, can I fund a bank that's going to produce a factory in, in Mexico? I mean, these are decisions that are very difficult for government to make and can't make wisely.

MR. FORBES: And this gets to the danger of what you might call financial protectionism; that is, a return for these new monies, new capital, banks won't be able to lend overseas, which is a form of protectionism and gets in the way of the system.

MR. GREGORY: But as--does Wall Street need to absorb the fact that if they need lots of taxpayer help, they have to find a way to speak directly to the American people about what they do...

MR. FORBES: Yes.

MR. GREGORY: ...and the importance of what they do, if they want $1 trillion, $2 trillion worth of taxpayer money?

MR. FORBES: Yes. Well, Wall--yes. Wall Street has to learn the golden rule: He who has the money makes the rules. And in Washington, they have the money so they're going to make the rules. Get used to it. You want the help, you pay the price for it. And I think they've been slow in doing that.

MS. BURNETT: The rise in populism, though, has been amazing. I mean, just the rhetoric out of Barack Obama and Joe Biden this week, that they talk--used the word shameful and outrageous to refer to Wall Street practices. You know, and I'm hearing that that's much more they know that they're going to have to bail them out and they don't want to look like they're doing it because they want to, as opposed to a real shift of populism.

MR. GREGORY: All right, we are going to leave it there.