More Welfare for Corporate Executives

For years, Corporate America underfunded employee pension plans, and eventually we, the government, i.e. taxpayers, were forced to take over the shorted funds.

But now we learn that, in the years prior to government takeover, these corporations cut benefits for retirees by as much as two-thirds while their executives got salary increases, retention bonuses, and other pay in the many millions of dollars. "One airline company missed $979 million in required pension contributions while its top three executives took $55 million in compensation, and another paid four executives $120.4 million amid two bankruptcies." (GAO Report in Bloomberg News Service)

"It is fundamentally wrong that executives were able to line their pockets with millions of dollars from bonuses, stock options, and free joyrides on corporate jets while watching their workers' retirement security slip into peril," Rep.George Miller ( D, Calif.) observed.

Once again, Coporate America was screwing U.S. employees by imperiling their retirement while at the same time paying millions of dollars in bonuses to executives who were not doing their jobs. Sounds like welfare for the rich.