NEW YORK (CNN) -- Bonuses for Wall Street fat cats are easy political fodder in uncertain economic times, but former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Friday cutting corporate bonuses means slashing jobs in the Big Apple.
"If you somehow take that bonus out of the economy, it really will create unemployment," he said on CNN's "American Morning." "It means less spending in restaurants, less spending in department stores, so everything has an impact."
President Obama admonished corporate America on Thursday after the New York comptroller reported that Wall Street bankers received $18.4 billion in bonuses in 2008.
"This is the height of irresponsibility. It is shameful," the president said.
These are the same institutions "teetering on collapse" and asking taxpayers to bail them out while taxpayers are dealing with their own tumultuous finances, he said.
Last year, Congress passed a $700 billion bailout for financial institutions, and an $819 billion economic stimulus package is presently making its way through the Senate after garnering House approval Wednesday.
"There will be time for [bankers] to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses -- now is not that time," Obama said of the bonuses, which were about equal to those of 2004.
When
Giuliani ran for the GOP presidential nomination, pundits said his stances on issues like abortion rights separated him from self-proclaimed Reagan Republicans in the field. Not up for debate is Giuliani's alignment with the 40th president on "trickle-down economics," the theory that keeping the rich wealthy creates jobs and solvency for the lower classes.
"Those bonuses, if they are reversed, are going to cause unemployment in New York," the self-described fiscal conservative said. "I remember when I was mayor, one of the ways in which you determine New York City's budget, tax revenue is Wall Street bonuses.
