Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today released the following statement in response to news reports that Goldman Sachs has decided to alter its bonus payments:

“Today, Goldman Sachs bowed to public pressure and promised to suspend bonus payments to its top executives.  It’s important to

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understand this in perspective. Goldman did this only in the face of deafening public criticism over bonus payments to bankers.

“Once the uproar subsides, executives throughout the financial services industry will return to the same practice of showering themselves with outrageous compensation packages and bonuses.

“We need to reform fundamentally our tax code so that we don’t have to rely on extraordinary public outcry to curb such excessive behavior.

“I offered a commonsense amendment to HR 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, that would have taxed the bonuses of executives at TARP recipients, as well as the profits reported by these institutions. My amendment simply acknowledged that without the extraordinary actions of the federal government, many of these institutions would have collapsed a long time ago, and it would have held to account those individuals that made the decisions and that led to the crisis.

“Unfortunately my amendment was not accepted by the Rules Committee.  Soon I will be introducing legislation based on the amendment that I offered, that will pave the way for a more fair and just tax treatment of absurd bonuses in the financial industry.

“Leaders in Great Britain and France have recently announced proposals to tax the bonuses of financial executives--if the United States remains silent on the issue, we will in effect be leading the world in a ‘race to the bottom’ of international efforts to regulate the financial services industry.