Quote:
Obama calls Wall Street bonuses 'shameful'

President Obama thinks it is "outrageous" that securities firms paid their top executives $18.4 billion in bonuses last year, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said this afternoon.

He added that the president will have more to say about this later today.

Though the amount of money paid in bonuses was well below the $33 billion paid in 2007, they were paid in a year when the financial sector's crisis led to a more than $700 billion -- so far -- federal bailout.

Update at 3:45 p.m. ET. "Shameful".

The cable news networks just showed video, taken a few minutes ago, of the president expressing his outrage:

For the firms to pay billions in bonuses last year "is the height of irresponsibility," Obama said. "It is shameful."

Wall Street firms need to "show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility," he added.

They can't be "digging a bigger hole even as (taxpapers are) being asked to fill it up!"


"One point I want to make is that all of us are going to have responsibilities to get this economy moving again. And when I saw an article today indicating that Wall Street bankers had given themselves $20 billion worth of bonuses -- the same amount of bonuses as they gave themselves in 2004 -- at a time when most of these institutions were teetering on collapse and they are asking for taxpayers to help sustain them, and when taxpayers find themselves in the difficult position that if they don't provide help that the entire system could come down on top of our heads -- that is the height of irresponsibility. It is shameful.

"And part of what we're going to need is for folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility. The American people understand that we've got a big hole that we've got to dig ourselves out of -- but they don't like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole even as they're being asked to fill it up.

"And so we're going to be having conversations as this process moves forward directly with these folks on Wall Street to underscore that they have to start acting in a more responsible fashion if we are to together get this economy rolling again. There will be time for them to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses -- now is not that time. And that's a message that I intend to send directly to them, I expect Secretary Geithner to send to them -- and Secretary 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. We shouldn't have to do that because they should know better. And we will continue to send that message loud and clear."

USAtoday.com

Fair play!