President Obama has unveiled a plan that would cap executive pay and end bonuses at firms receiving future taxpayer bailouts. An executive at a bailed-out company could make a maximum $500,000.

President Obama: “For top executives to award themselves these kinds of compensation packages in the midst of this economic crisis isn’t just bad taste, it’s bad strategy, and I will not tolerate it as President. We’re going to be demanding some restraint in exchange for federal aid, so that when firms seek new federal dollars, we won’t find them up to the same old tricks.”

The caps would only apply to future bailouts, not the money already disbursed. The move follows outcry over last week’s disclosure that Wall Street firms paid out more than $18 billion in bonuses last year.