Think Progress: As Taxpayers Pad Big Oil’s Soaring Profits, Landry Praises Excessive CEO Compensation As 'The American Dream'
April 5, 2011- For freshman Rep. Jeff Landry (R-LA), record pay for oil CEOs as Americans suffer from surging gas prices is the realization of the American Dream. According to an AP analysis, the pay package for ConocoPhillips’ top executive, Jim Mulva, went up by 25 percent last year to $17.9 million, money sucked from taxpayer subsidies and drivers’ wallets. “Mulva was paid a $1.5 million salary, stock awards of $6.2 million and option awards worth $5.7 million. He also received perks of $294,000, including the personal use of company cars and aircraft, life insurance premiums and medical services.”
Think Progress: Paul Ryan Dodges Fox News’ Questions About Whether He’ll Eliminate Tax Breaks For Oil Companies
April 3, 2011- On Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) plans to lay out his proposed budget for the next fiscal year. Promoting his plan on Fox News Sunday this morning, Ryan made clear that his plan for deficit reduction would demand drastic spending cuts shouldered on the backs of low- and middle-income Americans without asking for similar sacrifice from the wealthy. Asked repeatedly by host Chris Wallace whether he’ll eliminate tax breaks for oil companies, Ryan hemmed and hawed without giving a clear answer:
WALLACE: A lot of Democrats that are already saying, even before they’ve seen your budget, that you do all of this balancing of the budget on the spending side, and unlike the President’s debt commission, you don’t do it on the revenue side. Do you eliminate tax breaks? Do you bring in new revenue by eliminating, for instance, tax breaks for oil companies?
Truthout: The Truth About the Economy That Nobody in Washington or on Wall Street Will Admit
April 1, 2011- Why aren’t Americans being told the truth about the economy? We’re heading in the direction of a double dip – but you’d never know it if you listened to the upbeat messages coming out of Wall Street and Washington.
Consumers are 70 percent of the American economy, and consumer confidence is plummeting. It’s weaker today on average than at the lowest point of the Great Recession.
The Reuters/University of Michigan survey shows a 10 point decline in March – the tenth largest drop on record. Part of that drop is attributable to rising fuel and food prices. A separate Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence, just released, shows consumer confidence at a five-month low — and a large part is due to expectations of fewer jobs and lower wages in the months ahead.
Pessimistic consumers buy less. And fewer sales spells economic trouble ahead.
RAW Story: Top Republican refuses to say if new GOP budget will end corporate welfare
April 3, 2011- House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) said Sunday that the GOP 2012 budget will exceed even the $4 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade recommended by President Barack Obama's debt commission.
But Ryan wouldn't commit that his new budget would follow the debt commission's lead and end corporate welfare for oil and gas companies.
"Widely reported that your budget will cut spending by $2 trillion over the next decade. True?" Fox News Chris Wallace asked Ryan during their Sunday interview.
"Well, it's more than that," Ryan said. "Quite a bit more than that."
"$4 trillion?" Wallace wondered.
"Looking at more than that right now. We're fine-tuning the numbers. Congressional Budget Office literally today, over the weekend. We'll cut more than that," Ryan explained.
Think Progress: Top 25 Hedge Fund Managers Make As Much As 440,000 Middle-Class Americans, But Still Get Tax Loophole
April 1, 2011- According to the latest statistics, CEO pay last year rose by 27 percent, while worker pay rose by just 2 percent. The median corporate CEO made $9 million last year, pushing CEO pay nearly back to its pre-recession level. But even CEO pay pales in comparison to that of hedge fund managers:
Last year was very lucrative for some of the biggest and best-performing hedge funds’ chiefs. Wealth was so concentrated that a mere 25 people pocketed a total of $22.07 billion, according to this year’s annual ranking by AR Magazine, which tracks the hedge fund industry. At $50,000 a year, it would take the salaries of 441,400 Americans to match that sum.
Crooks & Liars: Transocean Awards Big Bonuses, Citing "Safety Record". WTF?
April 2, 2011- You keep using that word...I do not think it means what you think it means:
Transocean Ltd. had its "best year in safety performance" despite the explosion of its Deepwater Horizon rig that left 11 dead and oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the world's largest offshore-rig company said in a securities filing Friday.
Accordingly, Transocean's executives received two-thirds of their target safety bonus. Safety accounts for 25% of the equation that determines the yearly cash bonuses, along with financial factors including new rig contracts.
The payout contrasts with that for 2009, when the company withheld all executive bonuses after incurring four fatalities that year "to underscore the company's commitment to safety."
NYT: A Wiki Takes Aim at Obama
April 3, 2011- Steven J. Law, the president of Crossroads GPS, a well-financed conservative political group with ties to Karl Rove, had a revelation a few months ago while watching television news.
“WikiLeaks suddenly became a household name,” he said, and he thought, “Amid all of this bad behavior, there is a certain genius going on there.”
Last week, in an attempt to tap into that genius, Crossroads began Wikicountability.org, a collaborative Web site intended to create a database of freedom of information requests that scrutinize the actions of the Obama administration.
Chamber of Commerce Lies, Crappy Jobs and The American Dream
-Originally blogged by Jonathan Tasini on Working Life
April 1, 2011- I know there is an obvious answer to this question: does the Chamber of Commerce ever stop lying? Since you've answered that yourself, let's consider for a moment the most immediate lie--and the truth about the economic reality facing most working people.
There is, as we know, a concerted effort by Republicans and business leaders (and a scattered handful of dumb-ass Democrats) to undermine the powers of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and make sure Elizabeth Warren never sets foot inside the Bureau as its confirmed chief. So, you may have seen yesterday some reports about Warren's visit to a Chamber conference during which the head of the Chamber, Thomas Donohue spoke:
Rep. Johnson seeks intelligence firms' contracts in ChamberLeaks scandal
March 28, 2011- Congressman writes Gates, Holder and Clapper; says he will lead investigation himself if necessary
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA-04) has requested that the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, and Director of National Intelligence turn over to Congress all contracts with intelligence firms HBGary Federal, Palantir Technologies, and Berico Technologies. (Click HERE to read the letters – .pdf, 3 pgs)
Wall St. Journal: Transocean Cites Safety in Bonuses
April 2, 2011- Transocean Ltd. had its "best year in safety performance" despite the explosion of its Deepwater Horizon rig that left 11 dead and oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the world's largest offshore-rig company said in a securities filing Friday.
Accordingly, Transocean's executives received two-thirds of their target safety bonus. Safety accounts for 25% of the equation that determines the yearly cash bonuses, along with financial factors including new rig contracts.
The payout contrasts with that for 2009, when the company withheld all executive bonuses after incurring four fatalities that year "to underscore the company's commitment to safety."
