U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe said Friday that Washington is out of touch with Americans’ pain, as evidenced by stripping an amendment from the economic stimulus bill that would have forced Wall Street executives to pay back billions of dollars in bonuses to taxpayers.

“The administration wasn’t supportive of it, interestingly enough,” Snowe said of the measure she co-wrote with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon.

“It speaks to a disconnect, frankly, between understanding what Americans are feeling and what’s either happening in Washington or in the federal financial regulatory system and Wall Street,” she said. “People like the secretary of the treasury would be well served traveling the country and listening to average Americans talking about their plight, like the president did this week.”

Under the amendment, financial institutions that got federal bailout money would have been required to either repay the cash portion of any bonus paid in excess of $100,000 within 120 days or face an excise tax of 35 percent on what is not immediately repaid to the Treasury.

“It is outrageous that $700 billion has been underwritten by the American people to help out these financial institutions and they doled out $18.5 billion in bonuses at the end of 2008,” Snowe said recently.

“It’s the height of arrogance,” she said.

She said the money was meant for lending.

“(The stimulus) cannot do it on its own, it really has to be done in conjunction with credit activity, and that requires the banks and financial institutions to use the (bailout) money for that purpose, what it was designed to do, frankly,” Snowe said. “We’re still not having credit activity. I’m hearing many stories from small businesses in Maine not being able to secure lines of credit.”

Despite the exclusion of the accountability measure, Snowe said she plans to vote for the stimulus bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday.

Snowe made it clear also Friday that despite the U.S. secretary of commerce position being open once again, this time due to the withdrawal of Sen. Judd Gregg, R-New Hampshire, she plans to stay put as Maine’s senior senator.

“I’m not ready to leave the Senate; I love my job,” she said. “I like my independence. You guys are going to have to live with me awhile longer.”

Snowe confirmed that she had been approached in recent weeks by Obama officials about taking a job within the administration, but declined to say which job specifically.

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