JP Morgan, Lazio's employer, and 12 others singled out for paying outrageous bonuses while on federal dole

In past, Lazio has defended his $1.3 million bailout-funded JP Morgan bonus as earned

Democrats today asked Rick Lazio whether he agreed with a scathing new federal report accusing his employer, JP Morgan, and 12 other bailed out companies with paying out excessive and undeserved bonuses.  Lazio himself received a $1.3 million bonus from JP Morgan, while the big bank still owed the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP) billions in unpaid loans.

For months, Lazio has insisted that his bonus was earned. Yet, in Friday's report, federal "Pay Czar" Ken Feinberg found that the bonuses lavished on top executives at 13 TARP-funded companies, including JP Morgan, could not be justified either in their sheer size or by the haphazard way they were meted out.  

“Rick Lazio has insisted for months that he earned every penny of his $1.3 million taxpayer-funded Wall Street bonus.  A new exhaustive federal report tells a very different story, finding that while his employer, JP Morgan, and other big banks were getting bailed out by the American taxpayer, they were paying out wildly excessive bonuses to top executives like Lazio.  The only real question for Lazio is whether he believes the report somehow doesn’t apply to him,” said Jay Jacobs, chair of the NYS Democratic committee.

"So, Rick, do you agree with the federal report finding that the bonuses JP Morgan paid to top executives like yourself were excessive? And if you do, do you still actually believe that you earned yours?" asked Jacobs.  

Friday's report reopens a sore subject for the Wall Street banks and their defender Lazio, who for months have sought to downplay the widely held view that they cashed in as the government bailed them out.  Last week, Democrats urged Lazio to return his bonus to the federal treasury.