On Wednesday, CEOs of eight bailed out banks went in front of Congress to answer questions about how they used hundreds of billions in taxpayers' money.
While in front of Congress, Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis admitted he thinks it's in "the best interest" of Bank of America to spend money lobbying against economic recovery legislation like the Employee Free Choice Act.
That is not acceptable. Companies that receive tens of billions in taxpayer money should not be allowed to lobby against policies that would help out millions of taxpayers in this tough economy.
In these tough times, we need policies that will help working families and pump more money into the economy. Bank of America even admitted in an internal memo that the Employee Free Choice Act will lift wages and benefits.
Yet CEO Ken Lewis says it's in his "best interest" to fight what his company called "a defacto wage and benefit increase" for consumers.
It does not make sense to give Bank of America $45 billion from taxpayers and allow them to turn around and fight our economic recovery efforts.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner recently did the right thing by imposing restrictions on bailout banks from using money for corporate jets and excessive executive pay. We're encouraging Secretary Geithner continue that progress by saying banks with government bailouts can't spend money on lobbying.
With your help, we can make our economy work for everyone again.
