A Congress Only CEOs Could Love
Sam Pizzigati
In a vote that largely went uncovered, House Republicans, with help from some Wall Street-friendly Democrats, voted to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act's check on excessive executive pay. You won’t believe their rationale.
Only 10 percent of Americans now have confidence in Congress, Gallup has just informed us. No other major institution in American life today has this low an approval rating. In fact, adds Gallup, no major American institution has ever had an approval rating this low.
The most amazing aspect of all this? Public confidence in Congress would likely be running even lower if average Americans knew more, day to day, about what Congress is actually doing. The latest case in point: last week’s congressional committee action on H.R. 1135, the “Burdensome Data Collection Relief Act.”
This particular piece of legislation speaks to an ongoing frustration in America’s body politic: the supersized paychecks that go to America’s top corporate executives. Average Americans, in overwhelming numbers, want something done to bring some common sense back to CEO pay.
But the House Financial Services Committee, this past Wednesday, opted to do the exact reverse. By a 36-21 margin, committee members voted to repeal the only statutory provision now on the books that puts real heat on overpaid CEOs. The full House, observers expect, will shortly endorse this repeal.
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