House passes bill taxing AIG and other bonuses (HR 1586: Tax 90% over $250,000)

Breitbart - Associated Press ^ | March 18, 2009 | STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

[ConservativeMind]

Acting with lightning speed, the Democratic-led House has approved a bill to slap punishing taxes on big employee bonuses from firms bailed out by taxpayers.

The vote was 328-93.

[VRWCmember]

is an act of legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a trial

There is no crime alleged.

But a tax law that is written to target a specific person or group of people to punish them after the fact for receiving compensation just because the government doesn't like the type of compensation is the same thing. It is also an ex post facto law that is prohibited by the same clause in the Constitution.

[mulligan]

And those in Congress just continue to pass dumber and dumber rules, regs and laws. No leadership anywhere and the Country is going deeper and deeper into the cesspool of disaster. Politics first, Nation’s well being a distant second.

[devistate one four]

you’re correct.

[Jenny217]

The congress screwed up by protecting the bonuses in the first place. Now they are acting against a group of individuals. If they thought the bonuses were wrong, why was there language in the original legislation that protected them. This congress is just trying to CYA and making it worse. I hope someone or lots of someones challenges this legislation.

[VRWCmember]

I disagree... Tax laws are almost always retroactive.

No, it is only rarely that tax laws are retroactive. They usually take effect AFTER signing and apply to taxable events occurring AFTER that date.

[truthingod]

What happened to principles? I would think it would be very good to go against this tide and tell the people why you did not vote to tax those bonuses!

You could have been on every news outlet describing your concern over the government overstepping their constitutional boundaries.

Are there no courageous conservatives left in Washington?

[org.whodat]

No, tarp was wrong, the balance is BS.

[boxerblues]

Is the rollcall out on this?

[truthingod]

Watch out DR’s. Your contracts will be scrutinized in the name of their national healthcare initiative.

[ConservativeMind]

I’ve not found it yet. I was hoping to see it soon.

[OrangeDaisy]

especially when they are given to people in the same division of the company that was responsible for the problems

Are you certain this is true? I believe I heard, either last night or this a.m., that the people getting the bonuses were not the people who caused the meltdown at AIG. Those people are gone.

You are correctLibertarianLiz. These retention bonuses were contractually promised to people asked to stay on and unwind the Financial Products unit. They are trying to manage trillions of dollars and right the sinking ship. The ones who took the ridiculous risks are gone. Management of these products is a very specialized and there are not many around who have the skills to do so. If the folks who received the bonuses walk away (and who can blame them if they do after the venom congress spewed yesterday), AIG may yet fail.

[truthingod]

AIG is not practicing sound business practices—that’s why they needed a bailout. Their contracts need to be recongnized, but couldn’t they decide to pay out a whole lot less?

[JrsyJack]

There is no crime alleged

That's the point. There is a government levied punishment without the accusuation of a crime. There are no due process protections, no trial, no jury, no nothing but guilt by legislative fiat. Even if a crime was alleged it is not the domain of the Legislative branch to determine guilt.

[spunkets]

"When a company declares bankruptcy, then contracts can be renegotiated."

What part of THERE WAS NEVER ANY CONTRACT WITH THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER don't you get?

"We should have let the company go under.

Ditto.

" We didn’t, so don’t get mad that contracts are still there. It doesn’t mean we should have confiscatory penalties on otherwise legal activity."

The taxpayers are picking up the pieces and they get to determine whether, or not they'll reward the certified failures.

[boxerblues]

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 144
(Democrats in roman; Republicans in italic; Independents underlined)

H CON RES 76 2/3 YEA-AND-NAY 19-Mar-2009 2:53 PM
QUESTION: On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Agree
BILL TITLE: Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding executive and employee bonuses paid by AIG and other companies assisted with taxpayer funds provided under the Troubled Assets Relief Program of the Secretary of the Treasury.

Yeas Nays PRES NV
Democratic 243 1 9
Republican 12 159 7
Independent
TOTALS 255 160 16

—— YEAS 255 -—

Abercrombie
Ackerman
Adler (NJ)
Altmire
Andrews
Arcuri
Baca
Baird
Baldwin
Barrow
Bean
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Boccieri
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boyd
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Bright
Brown, Corrine
Buchanan
Butterfield
Cantor
Cao
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson (IN)
Castor (FL)
Chandler
Childers
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly (VA)
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Dahlkemper
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
DeFazio
DeGette
DeLauro
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly (IN)
Driehaus
Edwards (MD)
Edwards (TX)
Ellison
Ellsworth
Engel
Eshoo
Etheridge
Farr
Fattah
Filner
Foster
Frank (MA)
Fudge
Gallegly
Giffords
Gonzalez
Gordon (TN)
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Griffith
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Halvorson
Hare
Harman
Hastings (FL)
Heinrich
Herseth Sandlin
Higgins
Hill
Himes
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hodes
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, E. B.
Jones
Kagen
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick (MI)
Kilroy
Kind
Kirkpatrick (AZ)
Kissell
Klein (FL)
Kosmas
Kratovil
Kucinich
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Luján
Lynch
Maffei
Maloney
Manzullo
Markey (CO)
Markey (MA)
Marshall
Massa
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McIntyre
McMahon
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Michaud
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Minnick
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murtha
Nadler (NY)
Neal (MA)
Nye
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Pallone
Pastor (AZ)
Payne
Perlmutter
Perriello
Peters
Peterson
Pingree (ME)
Polis (CO)
Pomeroy
Price (NC)
Rahall
Rangel
Reyes
Richardson
Rodriguez
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Ross
Rothman (NJ)
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Salazar
Sánchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schauer
Schiff
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Sestak
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shuler
Simpson
Sires
Skelton
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Space
Speier
Spratt
Stark
Stupak
Sutton
Tanner
Tauscher
Teague
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Titus
Tonko
Towns
Tsongas
Van Hollen
Velázquez
Visclosky
Walden
Walz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch
Wexler
Wilson (OH)
Wittman
Woolsey
Wu
Yarmuth

—— NAYS 160 -—

Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Austria
Bachmann
Bachus
Barrett (SC)
Bartlett
Barton (TX)
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono Mack
Boozman
Brady (TX)
Broun (GA)
Brown (SC)
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Buyer
Calvert
Camp
Campbell
Capito
Carter
Cassidy
Castle
Chaffetz
Coble
Coffman (CO)
Cole
Conaway
Crenshaw
Davis (KY)
Deal (GA)
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Dreier
Duncan
Ehlers
Emerson
Fallin
Flake
Fleming
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Granger
Graves
Guthrie
Hall (TX)
Harper
Hastings (WA)
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Hoekstra
Hunter
Inglis
Issa
Jenkins
Johnson, Sam
Jordan (OH)
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Kline (MN)
Lamborn
Lance
Latham
LaTourette
Latta
Lee (NY)
Lewis (CA)
LoBiondo
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Marchant
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul
McClintock
McCotter
McHenry
McHugh
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Moran (KS)
Murphy, Tim
Myrick
Neugebauer
Nunes
Paul
Paulsen
Pence
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe (TX)
Posey
Price (GA)
Putnam
Rehberg
Reichert
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rooney
Roskam
Royce
Ryan (WI)
Scalise
Schmidt
Schock
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shadegg
Shimkus
Shuster
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Stearns
Sullivan
Taylor
Terry
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Turner
Upton
Wamp
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Young (AK)
Young (FL)

—— NOT VOTING 16 -—

Boustany
Culberson
Davis (TN)
Delahunt
Doyle
Hinchey
Linder
McNerney
Miller, Gary
Napolitano
Olson
Pascrell
Radanovich
Slaughter
Souder
Wasserman Schultz

---

[guitarplayer1953]

Everyone should now contact their congressman and say that they should tax 90% of their auto raises each year. Maybe we could get a petition going to show the we are serious about their own greed.

[boxerblues]

I found it and posted it

[Big_Monkey]

"BS! The company was BANKRUPT and it took tax payer $s to bail out their worthless certified expert ashes! The taxpayers have no contract with any of these proven failures to pay them bonuses. You want them to claim the fantasy that they're owed bonuses, you pay them!

Wow. That is no incredibly uninformed and childish, I'm not quite sure where to start. And, more importantly, is so contrary to what every conservative should believe.

We can have reasonable discussion about whether or not the government should have gotten involved in the first place, but contracts (and these were legitimate contracts) are the absolute keystone to a well-functioning capitalist society. To discard a contract because you simply don't like or are envious of the contracts terms, is a dangerous and catastrophic precedent.

[spunkets]

"The congress screwed up by protecting the bonuses in the first place."

Congress is in D hands and Dodd was just acting as a good loyal pawn of the messiah in the WH. It was all just a good buddy show to their campaign enablers.

[socialismisinsidious]

We don’t have a system where the O is dictator and has complete power.....yet. The Liberals in charge are more socialist than fascist, but does it matter much? The line is a fine one and both mean the end of this Republic.