Horrified By $20B Bonus Bonanza, Sen. Dodd Calls for Wall Street to Repay

Did U.S. taxpayers help fund nearly $20 billion in Wall Street bonuses at the end of last year while Congress raced to the rescue of embattled companies in the midst of a financial crisis that some consider the worst since the 1930s?

If taxpayer money was used, directly or indirectly, the government will lean on corporations to repay it, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, promised today, reports the Hill.

“I’m going to look at every possible legal means and otherwise to make sure this money gets paid back," the senator told reporters.

He added, "I’m going to be urging—in fact not urging, demanding—that the Treasury Department figures out some way to get the money back. This is unacceptable," reports the On Deadline blog of USA Today.

Wall Street bonuses for last year were 44 percent less than in 2007, according to a report released yesterday by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Yet they're still among some of the most lucrative on record, and many are outraged that those who helped create the current global economic debacle are getting any bonuses at all, reports Business Week.

While the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program enacted on an emergency basis last year "restricted the size of bonuses for top-level employees, there was no such restriction for lower-level employees," the magazine reports.

President Barack Obama also harshly criticized continuing corporate excess in the midst of an economic debacle, the On Deadline post reports. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner "already had to pull back one institution that had gone forward with a multimillion-dollar jet plane purchase at the same time as they’re receiving TARP money," the president recounted.

In a press release, DiNapoli called for greater transparency and accountability concerning the expenditure of such taxpayer bailout monies, Business Week notes.

Related coverage:

Wall Street Journal (sub. req.): "Merrill Bonus Case Widens as Deal Struggles "