Day: January 29, 2013

Who Can Build a Second GOP?

Buck Banks

It’s probably futile to try to change current Republicans. It’s smarter to build a new wing of the Republican Party, one that can compete in the Northeast, the mid-Atlantic states, in the upper Midwest and along the West Coast. It’s smarter to build a new division that is different the way the Westin is different than the Sheraton … Would a coastal and Midwestern G.O.P. sit easily with the Southern and Western one? No, but majority parties are usually coalitions of the incompatible. This is really the only chance Republicans have. The question is: Who’s going to build a second G.O.P.?

— David Brooks, writing in the New York Times.

Treasury Department Approved ‘Excessive’ Raises at Bailed-Out Companies

Buck Banks

$1 million

The largest raise approved by the U.S. Treasury Department, according to an inspector general’s report that found approved “excessive” salaries and raises at firms that received taxpayer-funded bailouts during the financial crisis. The report said Treasury approved all 18 requests — 14 for $100,000 or more — it received last year to raise pay for executives at American International Group Inc., General Motors Corp. and Ally Financial Inc.