House Passes Bill Taxing Wall Street Bonuses

House passes bill taxing Wall Street bonuses

cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com

The House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday to try to recoup bonuses paid to Wall Street executives with taxpayer money.

The measure passed, 328-93; most Democrats supported the measure while Republicans were sharply divided.

A two-thirds majority among all members voting was required for passage.

The measure would tax individuals on any bonuses received in 2009 from companies getting $5 billion or more in money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Bonuses for people with incomes over $250,000 would be taxed at a 90 percent rate.

The measure now moves to the Senate for further consideration.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 3/19/2009 by skeptic1]

And, now it's off to the Senate where they want to tax up to 90% of the bonuses and fine the companies in the amount of said bonuses.

I don't agree with these bonuses, but I also don't agree with Congress passing unconstitutional bills, either.

If they hadn't signed that freaking stimulus to begin with, maybe none of this would be happening now. Hell, even if they read the thing, maybe things would be different.

:shk:

cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I completely disagree with the bonuses, but this is ridiculous. Its absolutely unconstitutional.

This is quite dangerous, because it sets the precedent that government can void private contracts at any time and pass retroactive, ex post facto laws whenever they want.

reply to post by vor78


And, both sides voted for it in the House.

I don't think most of them know what impact this could have on future events and circumstances.

Or, they do and that is their plan or they just don't care.

reply to post by skeptic1


They don't care about the damage this could do. They're trying to keep the pressure off of themselves for their own gigantic mistake. They're the ones ultimately to blame, not AIG.

What part of 'No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed, ' do these people not understand? The Constitution is rather clear.

Of course, I'm assuming that our elected leaders have actually read the thing.

reply to post by vor78


I think they have proven they don't read much these days. :shk:

They are trying to cover their butts on this since they passed the Stimulus package which had the protection language covering these bonuses in it.

These people don't think. And, when it comes back to bite them, they do something unconstitutional to "fix" it.

This country is going crazy.

Congress salaries should be taxed at 90% for stupidity and malpractice.

Wow, oh wow. How can they do this??? How is this legal?? Even though I don't agree with the stupidity of the bonuses, it was IN THE STIMULUS BILL they were to honor all promised. Now they do this??

Is anyone else scared of this sort of legislation?? Where would it end?

I do not believe this bill is constitutional.

reply to post by politbureau


It is unconstitutional.

It goes against the Constitution, Article 1, Sections 8 & 9.

Constitution Transcript

Originally posted by skeptic1
This country is going crazy.

Amen. I never thought I'd see the day when a president of the United States said this.

WTF was he thinking? What the hell are any of these people thinking? Civil discourse? Constitutional laws? Who needs them, apparently.

This country is going absolutely insane.

[edit on 19-3-2009 by vor78]

reply to post by skeptic1


Exactly.

Our Congress just stepped all over our Constitution...hopping and stomping...peeing all over it like it's a piece of trash just as they have many times before.

Only this time it was so blatant everyone could see it.

They want to name names of the AIG executives? WHY?

So crazy people can try to kill them?

Get your act together people...this is all a show...they know it...and you should too.

reply to post by vor78


That's ridiculous!

It's taken just under 2 months for this President to be a complete and total failure...

THere is no one to turn too. Even if you were to impeach him....we'd get Biden.

Impeach Biden...you get Pelosi.

We are all screwed.

reply to post by politbureau


I agree, it is unconstitutional.

What i'm concerned with is who or how this got put back into the stimulus bill.

I have a hunch it was Reid and Pelosi that did the change, but by who's direction or order.

and if they could change these bills in this manner, what guarantees that they will not put laws banning guns or other unconstitutional draconian laws in the futures.

Our Congress Critters are trying to cover their arses and not take responsibility.

I agree Congress is going too far - but aren't they allowed to change the tax laws for the current tax year? The bonuses were received this year, so don't they have the right to change the tax laws as they see fit?

I'm not condoning the behavior and I wouldn't vote for this bill if I were a Senator as I agree that it should have been addressed in the bailout in the first place. But it seems like adjusting the tax laws is the only thing Congress can do to "even the score with AIG" so to speak.

[edit on 19-3-2009 by sos37]

I was just watching cspan2 and the bill that was voted on and passed the house this morning, was introduced in the Senate by Senator Reid, I guess Senator Reid expected the Senate to Vote and pass it. Another Senator Objected and then my CSPAN2 Link went dead.

When the Link came back they where talking about something else. GO FIGURE.

Get ready for a lot more of these devastating power-grabs. Bills hurriedly rushed through a partisan Congress and signed into law by a partisan hack of a president, presumably as "emergency measures" to combat one crisis or another — and remember, as the present administration has stated repeatedly, Any crisis is a good crisis, because it gives them leverage to enact all sorts of unconstitutional crap.

This administration is barely two months old, but it's already ripping and shredding the Constitution to pieces, and basically laughing in our faces as our liberties are extinguished.

— Doc Velocity

Within that same bill they should tax 90% of Congresses raise as well.

Fair is fair.

What would I do if I was a CEO and wanted my people to get extra money?

Hmmmmmm

I would just increase their base amount by their amount of bonus.

There are still ways around this feel good bill.

reply to post by tiso_us


The promise of opaque transparency in government is a promise kept?

We are in deep doo-doo when our representatives behave in this manner.

The deeper we sink, the longer we allow this bull manure continuing.

It's absolutely unconstitutional and it will go nowhere. Not to the Senate and not to the President. It's a Bill of Attainder :

Definition: A legislative act that singles out an individual or group for punishment without a trial.

It's all just a legislative dog and pony show to distract us from the real scandal which is AIG/Goldman, the Great American Money-Laundering Scheme (Bailout) and Washington DC collusion.

jonathanturley.org...-9086

The AIG contracts were written in March 2008, so the obligations were known to AIG when it was negotiating with Congress and it does not seem that, at the time that the contracts were signed, AIG could make good on these obligations. Under the contracts, these executives were guaranteed 100 percent of their 2007 pay for 2008, regardless of their performance. It seems precisely the type of policy that led to this company imploding — performance of the executive is irrelevant to their compensation.

Yet, Congress was dealing with a group of executives that had shown little business judgment and considerable greed in their destruction of their own company. Yet, Congress saw fit to give these same people hundreds of billions of dollars and then express shock that they acted precisely in the same way with the public funds.

I really hope people see this Bill for the incompetence it is. The House has failed to execute it's most basic duty - to uphold the Constitution. Any member who voted in support of this Bill should be asked to resign their Office.