John McCain calls for accountability in bailout plan
McCain says it includes no oversight of Treasury's Henry Paulson and suggests a board headed by Warren Buffett, Mitt Romney or Michael Bloomberg. He also decries golden parachutes for failed CEOs.
SCRANTON, Pa. -- With the Bush administration trying to hurry through Congress the $700-billion package to bail out Wall Street and bolster the U.S. economy, Republican John McCain said he was "greatly concerned" about a plan that gives Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson "the unprecedented power to spend $1 trillion without any meaningful accountability."
At the Irish-American presidential forum in this battleground state, McCain said that the plan being discussed today in Washington gives too much power to Paulson.
"Never before in the history of our nation has so much power and money been concentrated in the hands of one person," he said. "We will not solve a problem caused by poor oversight with a plan that has no oversight."
McCain, who just a week ago said the economy was "fundamentally sound," proposed a "high-level oversight board" headed by investor Warren Buffett, an Obama supporter, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a McCain backer, or New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent.He also said the plan should not include the golden parachutes that reward failing CEOs with huge bonuses. "We cannot have taxpayers footing the bill for bloated golden parachutes like we see in the Lehman Bros. bankruptcy, where the top executives are asking for $2.5 billion in bonuses after they ran the company into the ground," he said.
Earlier in the day McCain was asked if Carly Fiorina, one of McCain's top economic advisors, is an example of the problem. Fiorina was fired as CEO of Hewlett-Packard in 2005 but left with an estimated $45-million severance package while some 20,000 employees were laid off.
"I don't think so," McCain said on NBC's "Today. "I think she did a good job as CEO in many respects. I don't know the details of her compensation package. But she's one of many advisors that I have."
McCain also criticized Democrat Barack Obama for failing to put forth a plan of his own. "At a time of crisis, when leadership is needed, Sen. Obama has simply not provided it," he said. "And the truth is that we don't have time to wait for Sen. Obama's input for our nation to act."
Obama, who has said he wants to avoid making specific recommendations while the U.S. government is scrambling to steady the economy, plans a major speech on the economy later today in Green Bay, Wisc. In a preview, the campaign put out a fact sheet saying that Obama will advocate the creation of a team to reform the federal government and promise to wring "the greed and excesses" out of Washington "so that we never face an economic crisis like this again."
