Rahm Emanuel on Corporations Democratic Rep. (IL-5); Chief of Staff-Designee

Some areas of Michigan have it worse than Great Depression

Rahm impressed the gathering with his detailed knowledge of which congressional districts in Michigan had which auto plants. "You're always explaining that things are bad, but it's not like the Great Depression," he told the president. "Well, in some of the counties..."

"I know what you're going to say," Obama interjected. "In some of these counties it WILL be like the Great Depression." Obama said, "I've decided. I'm prepared to support Chrysler if we can get the Fiat alliance done." He would give Chrysler thirty days and GM sixty days to reorganize with the help of the task force or face a cutoff of TARP money. He could live with the government's forcing a bankruptcy, but not putting Chrysler out of business altogether.

Voted YES on allowing stockholder voting on executive compensation.

Proponents support voting YES because:

We should not deprive the public, the stockholders, from being able to do anything meaningful once they find out about scandalous levels of executive compensation or board compensation. Everyone talks about the corporate board as the remedy. But the board is often a part of the problem, being paid huge amounts of money for showing up once or twice a year at meetings.

Give the stockholders a meaningful remedy. Once you get the mandatory disclosure put in place by previous legislation, we are saying the stockholders should be allowed to have a referendum on that and not have a runaround by the board.

Opponents support voting NO because:

This vote is based on mischaracterization--it is an unnecessary amendment. The opportunity for these kinds of votes already exists within the structure of corporate governance right now. A good company from Georgia, AFLAC, went ahead and already has these nonbinding shareholder votes. But there is a difference between having individuals in the private sector, shareholders and individuals outside of the mandating of government to have it occur and have government come in with its heavy hand and say, this is exactly what you need to do because we know best. Our constituents know better how to act and how to relate to corporations than Washington.

Voted NO on replacing illegal export tax breaks with $140B in new breaks.

Rated 39% by the US COC, indicating a mixed business voting record.

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Screen imports & ban lead in children's products.

A bill to reform the Consumer Product Safety Commission to provide greater protection for children's products, to improve the screening of non-compliant consumer products, to improve the effectiveness of consumer product recall programs, and for other purposes.

• Requires third party certification of, and provides for tracking and record keeping regarding, children's products.
• [Increase] reporting of substantial product hazards and corrective action plans.
• Requires certain manufacturers or distributors to post an escrow or proof of insurance to cover recalls.
• Allows enforcement by state attorneys general and provides public and private sector whistleblower protections.
• Bans children's products containing lead and lowers the allowable lead content in paint.
• Requires a study of preventable injuries and deaths of minority children related to consumer products.
• Requires a cost-benefit analysis under the Poison Prevention Packaging Act.
• Requires development of a risk assessment methodology regarding imports.
• Requires publication of a list of product defects that constitute a substantial product hazard.
• Conditions importation of a consumer product on the manufacturer's compliance with inspection and record keeping requirements.
• Requires a database on violations of consumer product safety rules to be used to determine whether a container being imported contains consumer products that are in violation of a consumer product safety standard and whether action should be taken under imported products provisions.