Stimulus Showdown, New SEC Rules and Obama’s Labor Pains
Aides on Capitol Hill prepare for negotiations between House and Senate versions of the economic stimulus bill.
New Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Schapiro changes rules regarding penalties for corporate fraud.
President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, faces opposition over tax issues.
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1. POLITICS
Aides on Capitol Hill prepare for negotiations between House and Senate versions of the economic stimulus bill.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on the disingenuous rhetoric of Democrats in Congress:
“It’s hardly ‘bold and responsible’ to redistribute other people’s wealth: it’s the easiest thing in the world to do when you’re a career politician; it’s dismally less ‘bold’ when that wealth hasn’t even been created yet and must be borrowed from our descendants who have no recourse against you now. So the package is actually reckless and irresponsible beyond Thunderdome. Like much government spending, whether routine or that squandered during past recessions, it’s politically motivated and unconnected to economic recovery.”
2. BUSINESS
New Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Schapiro changes rules regarding penalties for corporate fraud.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs Director John Berlau on how this move could harm innocent shareholders:
“Corporate penalties take money not from individual executives guilty of fraud, but from the corporate treasury that ultimately belong to the ordinary investors in the company. Frequently, these penalties have the effect of harming shareholder victims of corporate fraud twice: once when the corporate executives misuse a company’s money, and a second time when the corporate penalty further reduces the company’s assets that belong to all shareholders. That’s why it is more just and more effective for the SEC to levy penalties against individual wrongdoers rather than the corporation as a whole.”
3. LABOR
President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, faces opposition over tax issues.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Editorial Director Ivan Osorio on some of the questions that have been raised about Solis’ nomination:
“…ethics rules and possible conflicts of interest aside, Solis’s close involvement with [pro-labor lobbying group] American Rights at Work alone should make her ability to carry out her job in an impartial manner suspect.”
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