Dems to Wall Street: no taxpayer money for bonuses!

This is encouraging. Henry Waxman sends a pointed letter demanding documents from banks relating to whether they are going to use the bailout money for bonuses:



And then Andrew Cuomo says:

"Specifically, corporate expenditures and payments, made in the absence of fair consideration of undercapitalized firms, may well violate NY Debtor and Creditor Law 274, which deems such payments illegal fraudulent conveyances [...] obviously, we will have grave concerns if your expected bonus pool has increased in any way as a result of your receipt or expected receipt of taxpayer funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program."

So Republican Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says, "Give me a blank check for almost a trillion dollars or it's the end of the world." Republicans in Congress hesitate, but are quickly bought off with pork. Republican Paulson then abandons the plan to buy the banks' toxic assets, and instead gives money directly to banks with almost no strings attached. Democrats, then, point out that Wall Street millionaires and billionaires should not pay themselves bonuses out of taxpayer money.

If a landslide happens next Tuesday, the Republicans earned it.