Attention White House and Congressional hacks: If you get caught in bed with a hooker, it's too late to condemn prostitution!

Attention White House and Congressional hacks: You can't go hop into bed with a hooker, have your little party, pay her and then express shock, outrage, condemn the hooker and ask for your money back when the American Taxpayer finds outs what happened.

Considering the financial condition of AIG at the time the bonuses were officially given to their executives, and the fact that the American Taxpayer had already injected billions of dollars into AIG in an attempt to rescue the company, the bonuses were a hideous, immoral example of greed. Unfortunately, the bonuses were legal and contractually agreed upon by all parties.

I'm someone who has seen their 401k destroyed. I can't describe how disgusting it is to watch watch has gone on at AIG, in the White House and in Congress. However, I don't agree with the whiplash legislation to tax the bonuses at a 90% rate.

First of all, the White House, the Federal Reserve and our Congressional Representatives all agreed to the bonuses. Now they're trying to cover their rear end because they see the outrage of the American Taxpayer.

This article by Rep. John Campbell explains why he voted against the legislation for the 90% tax on bailout bonuses. I just read this morning that it appears the bill won't even be voted upon by the Senate. That's the right thing to do. We don't need anymore slippery slopes.
Rees

John Campbell's AIG Tax Vote Explanation

from the website The Club For Growth
by Andrew Roth

Here's Rep. John Campbell's explanation for why he voted "no" on the AIG tax bill. It's very well reasoned and principled.

I firmly opposed and voted “no” on HR 1586. Let’s first understand exactly what the bill does. It imposes a 90% federal income tax on any bonus paid to any employee of any company that has received over $5 Billion in federal rescue funds. Such companies include, Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, Chase Bank, JP Morgan, CitiBank, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, Countrywide, Goldman Sachs, AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac amongst others. The tax would only apply to people with total joint incomes over $250,000 or single individuals with income of over $125,000. When combined with California Income taxes which now top out at 10.55%, this can be a tax just short of 101% of the income.


Under this law, a bank teller at Wells Fargo could receive a bonus of $1,000 for doing a great job. If that bank teller was married to a physician who made $175,000 and they had some additional investment income, that bank teller would pay a tax of $1,055 on the bonus of $1,000 that they received for doing a good job. This is horrible!

This is not raising revenues, this is punishment. It is a terrible precedent to use the tax laws for punishment. If we go down this road, the government can impose a 100% tax on anyone they don’t like, or anyone they believe is paid too much. Employees of other companies, doing the same thing for the same bonus, will not receive this tax. That probably makes it unconstitutional and I hope it does.

I understand the public outrage over these bonuses and I share much of it. But this is not the way to fix it. Sue them to get the money back. But don’t do this.

You may or may not realize it, but embezzlement income is taxable today, but at normal rates. So if you steal money, you will not have a tax higher than normal. You may be forced to give the money back because you stole it, but it will not be taxed away from you. This bill makes a bonus from Bank of America a more egregious offense under the tax laws than bank robbery.

All of this was caused because we nationalized companies that are created to make a profit. Throughout time, governments have shown themselves to be particularly inept at such an enterprise. This is another example of why.
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