President Barack Obama heavily criticized Wall Street bankers for receiving bonuses of millions of dollars last year despite the critic state of the economy. An irritated President called their actions “shameful” and said that this is not the time for large profits and big bonuses.

During the same day, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking Committee said he will most likely call in front of the committee the Wall Street bankers who took the big bonuses after the banks or firms they were working for had received public money from the bailout stimulus fund.

“This infuriates the American people and rightly so…If you do it, I'm going to bring you before the committee,” said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.). He added that “every possible legal means” should be used to claw back the money.

President Obama said he criticized the Wall Street bankers as a reaction to a New York Times article which showed that Wall Street executives have given themselves bonuses worth as much as $20 billion last year, the sixth-most in history.

"Part of what we are going to need is for folks on Wall Street, who are asking for help, to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility," said President Obama, who had been critical of executive who take big bonuses before.

“They should know better," Obama said after last week he told Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to call Citigroup and tell them the administration is displeased with the fact that the struggling bank had no problem in buying a $50 million jet. This was just one of the actions of the bankers that Obama labeled as “the height of irresponsibility.”