Thank you Bernie

Thank you Bernie

by digby

.... for saying it:



Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein came to Capitol Hill this week to call for cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. As Congress and the White House are negotiating a year-end deficit deal, Blankfein sought to “lower people’s expectations” about their retirement and health care. He spoke with all the sympathy for someone struggling to get by on $14,000-a-year retirement that you’d expect from a Wall Street banker paid $16 million last year.

“Think about the arrogance of these guys on Wall Street who were bailed out by the middle class of this country when their greed and recklessness nearly destroyed the financial system and now they come to Capitol Hill to lecture Congress and the American people about the need to cut programs for working families,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a Senate floor speech.

BLANKFEIN FACTS: Lloyd Blankfein was paid $16.1 million in 2011, a 14 percent increase while earnings fell 47 percent  »

During the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs received a total of $814 billion in virtually zero interest loans from the Federal Reserve and a $10 billion bailout from the U.S. Treasury  »

Goldman Sachs received a $278 million refund from the IRS in 2008, even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion that year 

Also too, this:




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