According to CNN, Senator Elizabeth Warren has taken to Twitter to lay out a list of extreme demands for any company hurting from the coronavirus crisis and taking U.S. taxpayer aid.
“Let me be clear: We’re not doing no strings-attached bailouts that enrich shareholders or pay CEO bonuses. Period,” the former Democratic presidential candidate tweeted on Tuesday.
Here’s a sample of what Warren is calling a “progressive litmus test for bailouts to large corporations”
- Payrolls must be maintained and companies must use funds to keep people working or on payroll
- $15 minimum wage within one year of the end of the national emergency
- Permanent ban on share buybacks
- No dividends or executive bonuses while receiving relief and for three years afterwards
- Must obtain shareholder and board approval for all political spending
- Collective bargaining agreements should remain in place
Many lawmakers and Trump officials, would likely oppose extreme interventions into business operations.
“I can’t see it making it through Congress. Even some Democrats would oppose it,” said Greg Valliere, chief US policy strategist at AGF Investments.
Warren is calling for Congress to set up an oversight body that would be modeled on the Congressional Oversight Panel and the panel that looked for fraud in the TARP bailouts. However, Warren said this time the oversight body should have “real funding and subpoena power.”
“The sentiment is that during the last crisis Washington responded for Wall Street, but not Main Street,” said Ed Mills, Washington policy analyst at Raymond James. “If DC is opening up the checkbook again, let’s make sure that Main Street is taken care of.”