it was one of the costliest on record. three years ago chuck todd spoke to former deputy secretary of homeland security about whether federal and state governments should set aside dollars ahead of time to help cover costs. at the time the admiral was optimistic. chuck was not. there is a bill in the congress at the moment pending in the house. hr-2555 which would go an awful long way to creating the capability of doing a better job in prefunding and having funds available because we designed it to be there rather than depend on taxpayer bailouts in the after math of these nightmares. this is still not done, though. you sound optimistic that this bill can get passed. this sounds absurd that this hasn t happened yet. that bill died without a vote. to this day there is no national
ooh, kind of a hazy, rainy day in washington. you see that? you were talking about the cover of the washington post. show that cool picture. it is a cool picture. this is taken from a car window. you got it, barnicle? just taken from inside the car. and it kind of looks like an impressionist painting. and here with us now from washington gorgeous picture. we have a columnist for bloomberg view, margaret carlson. she joins us from washington for the must-read opinion pages. we start with sheila bair. she writes about income unequality in the new york times, and it s entitled grand old parity. i am a capitalist and a lifelong republican. i believe that in a meritocracy, some level of income inequality is both inevitable and desirable. but i fear that government actions, not merit, have fueled these extremes in income distribution through taxpayer
bailout rage returns. cnbc s mandy drury is here with what s moving your money. and at a time where most workers would be happy to get any kind of raise, big pay hikes still going out to companies that got billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts. that s right, chris. according to a watchdog report this morning, the treasury department ignored its own guidelines on executive pay at firms that received taxpayer bailouts. and last year approved compensation packages of over $3 million for senior execs at companies like general motors, allied financial, and aig. now, apparently, the government s pay czar signed off on $6.2 million in raises for 18 employees at those three companies. and the ceo of a division at aig received a $1 million pay raise. an exec at gm s troubled european union was also given a $100,000 pay raise. and in another instance, chris, apparently an employee at allied s residential capital was awarded a $200,000 pay raise,
so we can know how you will wind things down if you make a bad bet so we don t have the taxpayer bailouts. in the meantime, we made sure thehelp we provided was paid back, every dng single dime, with interest. now, governor romney has said he wants to repeal dodd frank. i appreciate it appears we have agreement that a marketplace to work has to have some regulation. but in the past governor romney has said he wants to repeal dodd frank. roll it back. and so the question is, does anybody out there think that the big problem we had is that there was too much oversight and regulation of wall street? because if you do, then, governor romney is your candidate. but that s not what i believe. that s not the facts. look, we have to have regulation on wall street. that s why i would have regulation. but i wouldn t designate five
things down if you make a bad bet so we don t have the taxpayer bailouts. in the meantime, we made sure thehelp we provided was paid back, every dng single dime, with interest. now, governor romney has said he wants to repeal dodd frank. i appreciate it appears we have agreement that a marketplace to work has to have some regulation. but in the past governor romney has said he wants to repeal dodd frank. roll it back. and so the question is, does anybody out there think that the big problem we had is that there was too much oversight and regulation of wall street? because if you do, then, governor romney is your candidate. but that s not what i believe. that s not the facts. look, we have to have regulation on wall street. that s why i would have regulation. but i wouldn t designate five