Americans across our country have given enough to big Wall Street banks and their CEOs. With our national and global economy teetering on the brink, the American people bailed out big banks to the tune of $700 billion through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Trillions of dollars of loans, grants, and asset guarantees were also made available to the financial sector.
But as soon as the crisis on Wall Street began to stabilize, those who led us down the road to economic turmoil were back to their same old tricks. Wall Street may be on the mend, but as the daughter of a veteran who managed a Five and Ten Cent store on Main Street in Bothell and who worked in that store with my brothers and sisters, it’s still families and businesses on Main Street that I will be fighting for.
And I’m sick and tired of our state’s families being forced to reach into our pockets to save Wall Street, only to watch big banks and CEOs return to a ‘Bonus As Usual’ mentality. That’s why I’m cosponsoring a bill that will apply a one-time 50% tax on bonuses of $400,000 or more, from those banks that received more than $5 billion in TARP funds. It will force Wall Street executives to pay back the taxpayers who never intended for their hard-earned money to be used to pay for huge bonuses for the very people who got our economy into this mess. And every dollar we collect will go towards paying down our national debt.
This is the right thing to do.
I’ll keep you posted on our progress with this legislation in the weeks ahead. Thanks for your continued support!