President Barack Obama hammered Wall Street institutions Thursday for what he called 'shameful' bonuses, saying it is the 'height of irresponsibility' to ask for help from taxpayers and continue to reward executives with handsome pay packages.

'There will be time for them to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses. Now is not that time,' President Obama said before an Oval Office meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Vice President Joe Biden.

The remarks are the president's strongest yet on Wall Street compensation, and they come as his administration readies a new strategy to confront the financial crisis, an approach that could cost far more than the $350 billion remaining in the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Earlier Thursday, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said that total Wall Street bonuses totaled $18.4 billion last year. Though that represented a 44% drop from the previous year, the size of the bonus pool was the sixth-highest ever.

'When I saw an article today that indicates that Wall Street bankers had given themselves $20 billion worth of bonuses, the same amount of bonuses as they gave themselves in 2004, at a time when most of these institutions are teetering on collapse and they are asking for taxpayers to help sustain them, and when taxpayers find themselves in the difficult position that if they don't provide help then the entire system could come down on top of our heads, that is the height of irresponsibility,' President Obama told reporters.

'It is shameful.'

As the administration prepares the next phase of the TARP, banks that have received rescue funds from the government are under heightened scrutiny. This week, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo subpoenaed former Merrill Lynch Chief Executive John Thain in a probe of bonuses paid by the investment bank on the eve of its merger with Bank of America Corp.

Mr. Cuomo called President Obama's critique of Wall Street a 'breath of fresh air.'

'Over the course of our investigation it has become apparent that while Wall Street melted down, top executives believed that, unlike the rest of the country, they still deserved huge bonuses,' Mr. Cuomo said in a statement.

Also this week, Citigroup Inc. canceled its multimillion order of a new corporate jet after the administration suggested it wasn't a good idea.

'We shouldn't have to do that, because they should know better,' President Obama said.

The president didn't discuss his plans for the financial-rescue package but said the strategy 'will be rolled out systematically in the coming weeks.'

According to The Wall Street Journal, the administration is weighing a series of steps to reinvigorate the financial sector that could involve $1 trillion to $2 trillion in government funds. One of those options would create a government run 'bad bank' to purchase the toxic assets currently impeding the flow of credit.

President Obama said Wall Street will have to behave more responsibly in the future.

'Part of what we're going to need is for the folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility,' he said. 'You know, the American people understand that we've got a big hole that we've got to dig ourselves out of, but they don't like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole even as they're being asked to fill it up.

'And so, you know, we're going to be having conversations as this process moves forward directly with these folks on Wall Street to underscore that they have to start acting in a more responsible fashion if we are to together get this economy rolling again.'

Henry J. Pulizzi