President-elect Barack Obama says bank executives should skip their holiday bonuses.
“I think that if you are already worth tens of millions of dollars and you are having to lay off workers, the least you can do is say, ‘I’m willing to make some sacrifice,’ ” he told ABC News’ Barbara Walters in an interview airing today.
Obama also had harsh words for auto executives who flew private jets to Washington last week to ask for federal money, saying, “I thought maybe they’re a little tone deaf to what’s happening in America right now.”
He claimed that US auto execs who are paid more than their Japanese counterparts, but whose companies are losing money, aren’t “seeing what’s going on out there.”
The interview took a lighter turn when Obama said he was “negotiating” with the Secret Service to keep his Blackberry.
“One of the worst things I think that could happen to a president is losing touch with what people are going through day to day,” he said.