Oregon: Ron Wyden

Our own Senator Ron Wyden is getting huge attention from the national media -- since he was one of the earliest voices calling for a stop to excessive bonuses for bailed-out firms. Last night, he appeared on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show. Watch the video (he's on at 4:45): Over at the Huffington Post, their front page had one of the biggest screamer headlines I've ever seen featured the question of the day in Washington - who killed Senator Wyden's amendment to cap excessive compensation for bailed-out firms? From Ariana Huffington's post: According to Wyden, he "spent hours on the Senate...

As I wrote last month, Senators Ron Wyden and Olympia Snowe proposed an amendment to the stimulus package that would have barred bailout-fund recipients from paying huge executive bonuses (and taken back the ones paid last year.) From the AP, back then: The $838 billion measure includes an amendment penalizing companies that paid bonuses greater than $100,000 to executives after receiving government rescue funds last year. The amendment would require the companies to repay within four months any portion of the bonus above $100,000 or face an excise tax of 35 percent on the portion of the bonus above $100,000....

Health-care guru (and all around big-brained) blogger Ezra Klein tosses the idea that Oregon Senator Ron Wyden's health care proposal is slowly but surely gaining juice among key players: And there are structural reasons that Wyden's plan might prove appealing to the administration. First, it's revenue positive at a time when the federal government faces yawning deficits and Congress might become more stingy. Second, it has demonstrated appeal to Republicans -- there are seven Republican co-sponsors -- at a moment when bipartisanship is in short supply. Klein goes on to say that its unlikely Wyden's plan will be the ultimate...

Well I had a conversation with Bob Tiernan yesterday and he mentioned some pretty interesting and I am not sure how I feel about it.

Tiernan told me that he has spoken with former Sen. Gordon Smith...