Revolutionary War And War Of 1812 Battlefield Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, it is hard to know how to begin because there is such a huge sense of outrage today in our country at what Wall Street has done through their greed, through their recklessness, and through their illegal behavior. The so-called masters of the universe, the best and the brightest, have plunged our Nation and, in fact, the world into a deep recession and taken us to the edge of a major depression.

In my State of Vermont and all over the country, what we are seeing is good, decent people losing jobs, losing homes, losing savings, losing their hopes for a future because of the greed and recklessness of a small number of people on Wall Street.

Everybody understands that one of the major institutions that has taken us into the financial mess we are in today is AIG. Over the past several years, AIG has moved away from being the largest insurance company in the world to becoming the largest unregulated gambling hall in the world. That is what they have done. As a result of the risky bets that AIG had made and lost on, the taxpayers have spent $170 billion bailing them out. That amounts to some $600 for every man, woman, and child.

During much of this period, Hank Greenberg, former CEO of AIG, was
able to amass a personal fortune of close to $2 billion. In 2007, he was one of the wealthiest people in the world. Even after the collapse of AIG, Mr. Greenberg is still worth close to $100 million, according to Forbes magazine.

Having helped cause this financial disaster as a result of their reckless and irresponsible behavior, it is beyond comprehension that these same people, the best and the brightest, would actually believe they are entitled to millions of dollars in bonuses. Think for a moment. These are the people who have caused one of the great financial disasters in the last 70 years, and they are sitting back and saying: For all of my fine and excellent work, I am going to be rewarded with a $3 million bonus or whatever it may be.

It goes without saying that we have to hear the outrage of the American people and say: Enough is enough. I have signed on to two letters which essentially tell these people who have received their bonuses to give them back. If they don't give them back, we are going to pass a surtax on those bonuses so the taxpayers will, in fact, receive back what we gave them. In my view, what we have to move to is legislation, to what I proposed, along with Senators Lincoln and Boxer, which was called ``stop the greed'' legislation on Wall Street.

The President is paid $400,000 a year. I think the President will survive on that sum of money. It seems to me that when taxpayers are spending hundreds of billions of dollars bailing out large Wall Street firms, we should make it very clear that none of their executives should be entitled to earn more than the President of the United States. They can, in fact, get by. I know it will be hard, but I expect they can survive on $400,000 a year when the taxpayers of this country are bailing them out.

More importantly and, in fact, for another lengthier discussion, we need to move to a new concept of what Wall Street should be doing. Bankers historically in our country and in the world play a very important role in providing credit to businesses that then create jobs, providing credit to individuals who can purchase homes and other necessities. That is what bankers historically have done. But over the last number of years, what Wall Street has become is not a place where responsible loans are made but a gambling hall where these guys have made huge sums of money in very risky investments that have failed. The taxpayers are now bailing them out.

We need to rethink the function of Wall Street. I, personally, believe that all these CEOs who are responsible for the crisis we are in right now should be leaving their positions. I would hope business schools will be educating financiers and business people to take the position that their job is to help this country, help create decent-paying jobs, help people get the homes they need, help people get the loans responsibly that they should have. That is a radical idea, I know. But I would hope we can move toward a Wall Street which has those values. The American people are sick and tired. They have had it up to here with a Wall Street that has seen their only responsibility being to make as much money as they possibly can in any way they possibly can.

Having said that, immediate action in stopping these bonuses is the order of the day. Longer term, we need fundamental reforms in the way Wall Street does business.

I yield the floor.

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