Posted on 03/19/2009 12:10:57 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
The more Democrats lash out, the more they are obviously guilty of the crime they are pretending to fight against.
According to Sherman today in the debate...next week.
Bonuses, commissions, even employee of the week rewards...
Really, he said they needed to come back and revisit all these types of compensation next week. Because people would find some other way around congress to reward people.
Before anyone cheers this, just consider WHO IS NEXT.
God help them, they know not what they do.
Two points.
1. It is not God that has a hand in this.
2. They (government) know exactly what they are doing and that is the scariest part....
There is no crime alleged.
They atart big then go after any bonus, for any slave in their path/view
Now we have punishment taxes.
Furthermore republicans should be against this legislation because it is attempting to make future bailouts palatable to the people. Republicans should be drafting legislation making it illegal for the government to lend money directly to any company.
The RINOS are probably reacting to those cry babies who call radio and tv talk shows and whine about “the rich” and how they are “hurting the little guy”. These whiners are the front lines in the class war.
That is a fear of mine, for personal reasons. My husband's company allows certain individuals in the company to get "bonus" checks four times a year.
In order to be part of that program, my hubby agreed to have his base salary reduced. Then he gets the bonus checks which are directly tied to the company profits. (Our last check was a little lower than past ones, due to the economy.) We have not seen a raise in his base pay since he signed up for that program, which has been years.
I am beginning to fear that the politicians (and then the public after the media gets them worked up) will begin equating all bonus programs with something evil --- and then hubby and I are screwed.
Some of these things the politicians have been saying about these people who got the bonuses have been simply outrageous. Then, the stuff that was being sent to AIG by the general public was frightening.
Something ugly is brewing out in the land, and the politicians would be wise to begin toning down their rhetoric, and fast.
This is wrong. It is meant to demonize the so-called “rich”. GDP will suffer as productivity will decrease as incentives for higher pay make it almost not worth working harder as pay will be taxed disproportionately. The executives at AIG and other companies (I hope that it also applies to Fannie and Freddie but somehow expect they are not included here with loopholes written into the bill) were paid to stick with the company in “retention” payments not incentive bonuses.
Guess what is going to happen now that this bill has passed? Those folks who have fought hard to keep AIG running somewhat smoothly in difficult times will pick up and go, quickly, leaving AIG in peril even more.
Republicans were stating they had legislation drafted to take back 100% of the bonus money. Be careful here on what you expect them to do.
I fear the camel's nose is under the tent. We will now have bureaucrats or congressmen determining how much we can earn based on their idea of how much we "need".
It’s very unsettling that the Constitution means nothing to 328/465 members of Congress.
A legislator that would use the law as a method of tyranny is a legislator that needs to be removed from office.
I’m sad to say that I now know how my founding fathers felt when they gathered to discuss what must be done to end the abuse of an all-powerful and deaf government.
The level of rising alarm in the back of my head keeps saying the same thing: When does talk lead to action and just how bold must that action be?
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.
... and given that Article I Setion 9 Clause 3 states:
No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
every one of them that voted "aye" should be impeached.
I predict that, ironically, the largely useless entertainment industry will be the only type of wealthy folk protected from the DUmmies socialist revolution. Oh yeah—that and rich Dems who don’t pay their taxes anyway.
I agree with your statement about why people are mad, but people are mistaken to call these payments "bonuses".
AIG went to these specialist/executives/employees to get them to stay and try and reduce AIG's $2.6 TRILLION exposure on these derivative's insurance contracts. The employee did that. They reduced the exposure by $1.1 TRILLION dollars. AIG (with the approval of the NY Federal Reserve Bank, under the leadership of Tim Geitner) promised these employees X amount of dollars if they stayed and did what they were asked. These are legitimate payments on legitimate contracts. Period.
This law is IMHO unquestionably unconstitutional. We'll see if anyone sues - I'm guessing not because who wants to out themselves as a recipient of these bonuses and face the public backlash. Sadly, that very well may cement this precedent and allow the DEMS to target other companies or industries they disagree with - Can you hear me OIL EXECUTIVE, PHARMACEUTICAL EXECUTIVES, INSURANCE EXECUTIVES, GUN MANUFACTURES ETC. ETC. ETC???
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