Getting a Grip on CEO Greed
There is greed, and then there is greed.
And now comes “Greedus Maximus” in the form of a group called the Business Roundtable. This outfit presents itself as the enlightened business community. Consisting of the CEOs of the largest 200 corporations in the U.S., this “enlightened” elite has recently drawn a policy line in the sand — not to protect the public interest, but to save the financial butts of the Roundtable’s CEOs themselves.
These executives have sacked up gabillions of dollars in the past decade in off-the-books paychecks called “stock options.” Under this scam, top executives get paid a king’s ransom, but the corporations’ bookkeepers hide these payouts from investors, employees, and the public, claiming that these millions technically are not expenses — even though this is real money paid from the business. The result is that hundreds of millions of dollars that could be invested in productive ventures are instead being siphoned into the already well-stuffed pockets of the executives.
Even the New York Stock Exchange has recently come out to say that these payouts to executives are, after all, stockholders’ money and, therefore, ought not be paid unless voted on by the stockholders. But CEOs despise corporate democracy, so the Roundtable is now pressuring the stock exchange to step away from applying even this small brake to runaway CEO greed.
To help get a grip on such greed, call the Council of Institutional Investors at 202/822-0800.
Bush’s Bureaucratic Shuffle
Why do I feel an urge to click my boot heels whenever Bush, Ashcroft, and the gang bark out the phrase, “Homeland Security?”
This bunch has spent its collective political career warning darkly about the evils of a “Big Brother” government, but now that they’re in power, they’ve become Big-Brother-on-Steroids, rushing to create a massive and menacing new federal police power to monitor all suspicious activity here in the Fatherland … I mean, Homeland.
All of this is a political attempt to cover up the recent disclosures that the administration’s top officials missed rather clear signs prior to September 11 that a crash bombing was in the making. Ashcroft’s knee-jerk reaction to these embarrassing revelations was, as usual, to grab for more autocratic power and to weaken our Bill of Rights. He has authorized the FBI to engage in more domestic spying and to go on fishing expeditions against innocent people, greatly expanding the federal police’s clandestine authority to enter our computers, churches, and political meetings. He barked that homeland agents need to know more about what people are thinking and planning. But wait a minute — the FBI’s own field agents had the information it needed prior to September 11, but the top brass refused to act. The agency doesn’t need more intelligence, it needs more intellect … and less bureaucratic intractability.
But then came George W. himself proposing … what? More bureaucracy! Hoping that Bad Ol’ Big Government can save him, he wants to merge 22 agencies into one humongous Homeland Security department that will be Washington’s third largest bureaucracy. But while this new agency will bring everyone from customs inspectors to cattle inspectors under one coordinated regime, it will not include the FBI, the agency most responsible for preventing terrorist attacks.
The first rule of bureaucracy is: When criticized, reorganize. But, as Hemingway said, “Never mistake motion for action.”
Defending the Rich
Today’s Gooberhead Award is a repeat winner — Tom DeLay, the corporate-hugging, right-wing nutball who is the third-ranking Republican leader in the U.S. House. Tom tends to view the world in terms of his own holy righteousness vs. the satanic evil of anyone who disagrees with him on anything, which often leads him into fanciful flights of Gooberishness.
His latest came during debate on a Republican proposal to eliminate the estate tax — a move that would be a multibillion-dollar windfall for the Rockefellers at the expense of us little fellers. Under current law, only the wealthiest 2% of American families pay any estate tax at all. Yet DeLay brands it as the diabolical “death tax,” and he recently rose on his hind legs to declare: “The vast majority of Americans believe that the death tax is the most evil tax on the books.”
Earth to Tom: Most Americans think that the worst taxes are the one that they actually pay — like payroll and sales taxes — not taxes on huge estates. Far from helping regular folks, Tom’s proposal would enrich George W. Bush’s estate by some $10 million, Dick Cheney’s by $40 million, and the sleazy head of Enron’s by $59 million. Overall, eliminating this tax on the wealthiest families would take more than $800 billion out of our public treasury at a time our country needs it for education, social security, health care, and the other real needs of “the vast majority of Americans.”
DeLay and gang showed their true loyalties when an amendment was offered to exempt 99.7% of all families — including family farmers and small businesses — from paying any estate taxes, thus limiting the tax to only a few thousand of the very wealthiest and most privileged. No, said DeLay, who led the charge to kill this amendment. And that’s the kind of Goober he is.
Jim Hightower is a speaker and author. To subscribe to his monthly newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown, call toll free 866/271-4900. To order his books or schedule him for a speech, visit www.jimhightower.com.
This article appears in June 28 • 2002.