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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid slammed Merrill Lynch's chief executive on Monday for requesting a $10 million bonus -- subsidized by taxpayers -- just two months after receiving $10 million in bailout money from the federal government.
The Democratic leader called on the company to reject the request.
"The TARP program, from which Merrill Lynch has taken billions of taxpayer dollars, was designed explicitly to limit executive compensation, bonuses and golden parachutes." Reid said in a written statement.
"While American families struggle to keep their jobs and their homes, I question the chutzpah of asking for a $10 million taxpayer-subsidized bonus. Americans deciding which bills to pay this month just to make ends meet do not want their hard-earned money even indirectly spent rewarding executives from banks that are largely responsible for the economic crisis," he said.
On Oct. 14, the faltering investment bank received $10 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to save itself from falling into bankruptcy.
In a report published Monday in The Wall Street Journal, Merrill Lynch's CEO John Thain -- who has been with the investment bank since December 2007 and earned a sign-on bonus of $15 million that year -- requested a 2008 bonus of $10 million. That request, however, has not yet been ruled on by the investment bank's compensation board, which is leaning towards a rejection, according to the Journal.
The Democratic leader called on the company to reject the request.
"The TARP program, from which Merrill Lynch has taken billions of taxpayer dollars, was designed explicitly to limit executive compensation, bonuses and golden parachutes." Reid said in a written statement.
"While American families struggle to keep their jobs and their homes, I question the chutzpah of asking for a $10 million taxpayer-subsidized bonus. Americans deciding which bills to pay this month just to make ends meet do not want their hard-earned money even indirectly spent rewarding executives from banks that are largely responsible for the economic crisis," he said.
On Oct. 14, the faltering investment bank received $10 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to save itself from falling into bankruptcy.
In a report published Monday in The Wall Street Journal, Merrill Lynch's CEO John Thain -- who has been with the investment bank since December 2007 and earned a sign-on bonus of $15 million that year -- requested a 2008 bonus of $10 million. That request, however, has not yet been ruled on by the investment bank's compensation board, which is leaning towards a rejection, according to the Journal.
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