I'll give you 1.6 million reasons why these banksters don't deserve a nickel in bonuses.

One reason for each child who is homeless in America - 1.6 million.

According to a new study by the National Center for Family Homelessness - there are currently 1.6 million children homeless in the United States of America.

That’s 1 in 45 kids - or roughly - one student per school classroom who doesn't have a home to go back to after school.

That tragic number has soared since 2007 - since THESE guys - these banksters - wrecked our economy.

You know what else has soared alongside child homelessness - THESE guys and their bonuses.

The organization "The New Bottom Line" is projecting that bankster bonuses at THESE 7 banks [Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, US Bank, and Wells Fargo] will break a new record this year - with fat cats raking in $156 billion in bankster pay and bonuses...while 1.6 million children are living in the streets.

Of course - the only reason those banksters can give themselves such lavish pay and bonuses is because we the taxpayers bailed them out 3 years ago.

Remember that?

We gave Citigroup 25 billion bucks.

We gave JP Morgan Chase 25 billion dollars.

We gave Wells Fargo 25 billion bucks.

We gave Bank of America 15 billion bucks.

We gave Goldman Sachs 10 billion bucks.

We gave Morgan Stanley 10 billion dollars.

And we gave U.S. Bank 6.5 billion bucks.

That's more than 116 billion dollars we dished out to these banks - rather than putting their executives in prison.

And we gave them all that money - not so that they could turn around and give themselves $156 billion in pay and bonuses - but instead so they could save us and save our economy.

We gave them a rescue line on the premise that they would then lend to small businesses to keep Americans in a job, basically.

So that they could help the homeowners who they'd conned into buying exploding mortgages - and they could help renegotiate the terms of those mortgages to avoid foreclosures.

So that they could do what banks are supposed to do - keep our money safe.

But they didn't do any of that - instead they just pocketed it - they stashed it in Swiss Bank Accounts - and bought new yachts so they could watch from afar just how bad this Great Depression would screw the 99% of us who aren't CEOs on Wall Street.

So that they could watch millions of Americans lose their jobs, their homes, and watch 1.6 million children who, through no choice of their own, are now living in a homeless shelter, a car, or just on the side of the street.

You know how much it would cost these banksters to renegotiate the terms of all the nation's underwater mortgages - something that would instantly stop the foreclosure crisis?

It would cost about 71 billion dollars - less than half of the fat paychecks and bonuses that they plan to pay themselves this year.

Less than half.

They could give every homeowner in America who's underwater a break of $543 a month - enough to keep families in their homes - and still hand themselves $85 billion in pay and bonuses - far more than banksters made back before Reaganomics brought us all this stuff.

And as far as those 1.6 million kids who are homeless goes - if the banksters decided to forego their bonuses this year and were paid like normal small-town bankers - if they said - "You know what - we really screwed this economy up - we took all this taxpayer money - there are people in the streets across America mad at us - we're going to hold off on the lavish pay and perks, and bonuses this year".

If they did that - that money could give each of those homeless kids a full ride to college - a ticket off the streets and out of the slums - and right into the university to become the next doctor, scientist, or engineer.

This isn't just an economic crisis in America - this is a moral crisis.

And this isn't about punishing success - it's about calling out irresponsible excess - it's about cracking down on gluttony on Wall Street - and it's about figuring out as a nation whether or not it's worth having multi-millionaires and multi-billionaires raking in that kind of pay for producing absolutely nothing - and paying on average about half the income tax that normal workers pay - when more than a million children in American don't even have a home.

If we want to stop this injustice in America - then we need to roll back Reaganomics in full - crack down on Wall Street's high crimes - and kick corporations out of our politics.

Go to move to amend dot org to join the fight.

That's The Big Picture.