Obama says, "...this is a crisis and everybody has to make sacrifices." We are confusing "sacrifice" with "hardship." Voluntarily accepting a cut in pay so that nobody is laid off is a sacrifice. Having your pay reduced because of economics is a hardship. Turning your thermostat down and putting on a sweater is a sacrifice. Experiencing rolling blackouts because of a lack of power is a hardship. Seeing your 401K reduced by 40% because of market conditions is a hardship, or perhaps a tragedy, but it is not a sacrifice as Obama tried to paint it in his recent press conference. In fact, he has been encouraging us NOT to make sacrifices. He doesn't want us to tighten our purse-strings because they will hurt the economy.

For the record, I am against the government controlling pay as much as I am against the government bailing out these companies.

What sacrifices are hussein, pelosi and reid making?

Banks,
If you haven't received taxpayers money ... tell him to GO JUMP!
BO read our Constitution! Act like it is a monitor!

Obama, you don't deserve the respect of Mr. or President.

What about these two entities? Amazingly they are about to dish out bonuses that will dwarf AIG's yet no mention by you or your goons. I guess when it's your cronies getting rich off my money its ok.

I don't think government should have any involvment at all in private business....is't that why it's called the private sector?

Hey Barry, why don't you take a lesson from the German PM who just said they already have thir laws and won't print out money they don't have to fix a problem caused by its own government.

Gerald Tillman said in an earlier comment that "There are plenty of smart people in our society that can do the same job these fat cats do for less money!"

If there truly were thousands of people out there that could do just as good of a job running these banks (non-failing banks since Obama is talking about them too) than the CEOs who are currently running them, then the amount of money paid to those CEOs would be drastically lower. These CEOs are paid huge amounts of money because of supply and demand. What Gerald said was incorrect. There aren't a lot of other people who could run these companies and Banks as well as the CEOs, and because the supply is low, the demand requires higher pay for those CEOs. Gerald and others can continue throwing out their hogwash about how we shouldn't be paying these people that much, but the fact remains that if we want these highly skilled people running these companies, we had better pay them heftly for their services or they will go somewhere else where they will get paid what they are worth. Then your company will be left picking up some lower skilled guy who can't run the company as well as the CEO you lost.

"Sadly, the American people will applaud this move. They just won't understand that the amazing financial minds that we need to turn these banks and other financial institutions around are simply going to go somewhere else .. perhaps to another country .. where they can sell their services in a free economy."
It was the financial engineering by these guys with the "great financial minds" that got us into this mess. They created the faulty instruments, mortgage based securities, to conceal the risk of sub prime mortgages, then were rash enough to sell insurance on this crap to entice people to buy them. These great financial minds made lots of monehy for themselves by poisoning the well. The reaction to their greed and excess is to ruin the reputation of capitalism. For capitalism to regain its reputation would require boards and CEO's to be seen as acting for the long term benifit of their corporations, not their own short term self interest. That is not what it looks like. Good example would be GM. Loosing market share for a generation, loosing money for four years, same CEO for 8 years, getting bonuses every year. Something has been wrong at GM for a long time. The pay and bonus structure has not been calculated properly to make someone stand up and fix it. They just take their pay and bonuses and fiddle while the place burns down.

Arent bonuses gifts based on how well a business is doing. When these banks are begging Congress for money I think that is prima facie evidence that they are not doing well enough to receive bonuses.

What would you expect from someone who believes in punishing the hard workers and rewarding those who hardly work or don't work at all? Just another example of the growing wealth envy in America.

Is anyone else out there getting just a little nervous about this guy DICTATING (isn't that what dictators do?) what the private sector can and can't earn?

Lets just do away with merit based pay in all of the private sector, everyone gets a flat $50,000 per year and that's it. That way we're all equally unproductive and utterly dependent upon the government and grand ruler Barack Obama.

I'm not saying that he is the same as Hilter but I was reminded this weekend by Robert Gellately, author http://www.amazon.com/Lenin-Stalin-Hitler-Catastrophe-Vintage/dp/140003213X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238419270&sr=1-1
that unlike Lenin and Stalin, Hitler came to power legally. He was elected and his initiatives were voted on by the German legislative branch.
Hitler slowly and systematically changed German law to do his dirty deeds.
Isn't that similar to what the socialists have been doing here in the USA since their first major victory back in the begining of the 20th century.
This is scary.

Neil,
I agree with BO on this. Those greedy banking bastards should not be getting bonuses. The average taxpayer has been screwed by the banking industry and its lobbyists, that do nothing to protect the average citizen. There are plenty of smart people in our society that can do the same job these fat cats do for less money! Let them take a pay cut also like the rest of us have, and lower their standard of living. Even you are overpaid for your "mouthiness".