The claim:
“I introduced a bill that would’ve helped stop the multimillion-dollar bonus packages that CEOs grab on their way out. . . . (John McCain) opposed that idea.” — Barack Obama on Wednesday in a speech in Dunedin, Fla.
The explanation:
It’s true that Obama wrote a bill that would have changed federal securities law to require shareholders of publicly traded companies to hold nonbinding votes on executive compensation packages. The measure, introduced on April 20, 2007, has never come up for a hearing or a vote. We reviewed McCain’s public statements and found nothing in his news releases or in the Congressional Record expressing opposition or support for Obama’s bill.
In a July 11, 2002, appearance at the National Press Club, McCain outlined a series of steps to “restore public confidence in corporate America” that included forcing executives to return any compensation directly received from their proven misconduct and preventing them from selling holdings of company stock while serving in that company. So Obama can take credit for introducing legislation that took aim at executive pay practices. But there’s simply no evidence to support Obama’s contention that McCain “opposed that idea.”
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