What CEOs Don't Want You To Know

Excerpts from Tom Hartmann:

Last year - as part of the Wall Street reform bill passed by Congressional Democrats and signed by President Obama - there was a provision forcing corporations to disclose just how large the pay gap is between their CEOs and their average workers.

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The provision was included in hopes that if people knew just how gross the pay gap was between CEOs and workers - then maybe there would be more pressure to shrink it…as they say - sunlight is the best disinfectant. And today - outrageous corporate pay is infecting our economy.
 
Consider that back in the 1970s - CEOs made about 30 times more than their average worker - as in what they did was 30 times more valuable to the company than what other workers did.

But since then - the numbers have exploded - and today - CEOs make as much as 400 times their average worker and in some cases on Wall Street, for example - as much as 2,000 times the average worker.

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And that’s why - as soon as Republican took control of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the year - CEOs from 81 of the biggest corporations in America - including McDonalds - General Dynamics - and IBM started a massive lobbying effort to repeal the new CEO-pay disclosure requirement.

And when corporate CEOs talk - Republicans listen.

Last week - Republicans did as they were told - and repealed the CEO pay disclosure provision in a party line vote in a House Committee, House of Representatives.

Republicans don’t think you should know that while unemployment is hovering around 9% and average employee wages are sinking lower and lower - people like Phillipe Dauman made more than $84 million last year as the CEO of Viacom.

Or that while nearly 50 million Americans languish in poverty - Ray Irani of Occidental Petroleum made $76 million last year.

Or that while more than 40 million Americans need food stamps just to eat - Lawrence Ellison of Oracle made $70 million last year.

Republicans don’t want you to know that every $15 million dollars a CEO gets - is paid for with a $1000 pay-cut to 15,000 workers.

Or that every $30 million check cut to a CEO - they could have instead hired 600 new workers at $50,000 dollars a year.

And these are the guys that Republicans call the “job creators” in America - the guys who’d rather stash $30 million in a Swiss bank account - where it will sit untouched collecting interest - rather than spend a dime employing one of the 25 million unemployed people in the United States right now.

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These CEOs are not job creators - they’re stealing from the people who are the ACTUAL job creators - people like you and me who buy stuff.

When the middle class in America has money - they buy stuff - and the more stuff they buy - then the more stuff needs to be made - and the more stuff that needs to be made - then the more workers need to be hired. That's how an economy works.

Big corporations are making record profits.

Big corporate CEOs are making record salaries.

More tax cuts and tax exemptions are the last things they need.  The current tax cuts and tax exemptions are not creating jobs.  They are only creating profits and wealth for those that already have it.

It is time for policies that have proven to create jobs...and those are not the ones that republicans are promoting.