Idaho Reps. Mike Simpson, a Republican, and Walt Minnick, a Democrat, both voted against a bill Thursday to impose 90 percent taxes on bonuses paid out to employees at AIG.
The bill passed, 328-93.
Eighty-five Republicans supported the bill. Said Simpson: “Unfortunately, the Democrats’ knee-jerk reaction today is unconstitutional and will not hold up in court. This legislation will end up costing the American public millions of more dollars trying to defend it - only to be defeated. The American people want an effective, appropriate response, and we need to explore all possible ways to get the bonus money back by legal means. Let’s allow this process to occur before enacting unconstitutional legislation.”
Minnick was one of only six Democrats to vote no. “Tinkering with the tax code is not the solution," he said. "Instead we need the Treasury Department to use its full weight and authority in administering the rules already in place to better regulate the companies receiving our money."
Simpson and Minnick support a competing bill that orders the Treasury Department to use any legal means to recoup the bonuses.
Delicious
Digg
Yahoo
Minnick is pathetic
Minnick should just become a Republican, and Simpson's vote was perfectly in line with Republican thought -- let the AIG thieves keep the money they stole from the taxpayers as the brought the economy down!
Really? Minnick is pathetic?
You ever hear of something called the Constitution? Specifically Article I, Section 9? Apparently Minnick has. You hypocrites kill me. The whole time dumbya was in office you whine about he has taken your rights away but you can't even name one. Yet when your congress, both Repukes and Dimocraps pass a law that blatantly violates the constitution the best you can come up with is ignorant partisan drivel. Why do you so easily give away your rights? Do you really think that the congress will only keep going after people you disagree with? I guess you've never heard of power corrupting have you?
By the way sheep one other little fact before you rant and rave about Repubs and letting AIG steal peoples money you might want to see who were the biggest recipients of AIG bribe money, I mean campaign contributions. Yep #1 one was your messiah Barry Obama, #2 was Christopher Dudd (Wow both Dimocraps), #3 was John McAmnesty the pathetic joke of a presidential candidate and #4 was Max Baucus, who just happens to have something to do with the tax laws. And you know what? Apparently their outrage hasn't reached a high enough level to return the bribe money now has it? Lastly in the last election cycle Dems received 68% of the bribes doled out by AIG people (See opensecrets.org for your proof) so it seems to me there is a bi-partisan bit of corruption there. But then why let something like facts get in the way of your partisan drivel eh? Nothing like party before country isn't that right? By the way genius two parties occupied the legislative branch of the government so it isn't like Dims hands are any cleaner than the Repukes. Gotta love the pathetic hypocricy of you people, what a bunch of frauds.
YEAH! George Bush ate the Constitution on September 12, 2001.
----------
Gilligan inhaled
Yeah I know sheep Republican bad Democrat good
I've never defended Bush on any forum anywhere but I know that's the only response you partisans can spew. I know, I know the party is more important than the country right. So keep on being a good little sheep and regurgitating your pathetic little talking points. By the way,how exactly did he eat the Constitution on 9/12/01?
If you are talking about gutting the Constitution by Bush and you are referring to things like FISA and the Patriot Act you just might want to check and see that not only did Republipukes vote for things like FISA and the Patriot Act but your precious little Dimotards did too but hey why cloud the issue with facts.
I know, maybe old Dumbya would have been more popular to you if he just had the ATF and FBI gun down private citizens like Janet Reno did or send the feds into snatch a small child from his relatives by force? I guess to you sheep it is only right to violate the Constitution when you are Democrat isn't it? It is never right regardless of which party is in power but since people like you can never put your country before your pathetic little political parties you'll never figure that out. And I reiterate that if they do it now and get away with it they will do it again, and again, and again until there are no rights or a constitution left. But hey I know it is more important for you and your ilk to go back to watching American Idol, or whatever crap it is you mindless sheep pay attention to, than it is to protect yourself against a more invasive government.
I leave you with the following quote, as if you would really understand it.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. - George Orwell
A few days away from the blog & sombody slides in & takes over
my government bashing both party & campaign finance ways. Am I upset, disappointed? NO! Loving it, an American pointing out both parties are crooked as a dog's hind leg, in the pocket of corporate & agri corruption. The American people don't get it & wouldn't do anything about it if they did! A good working dog couldn't run livestock any better than the mtomlins paid through campaign finance do this herd of sheople.
Batteries & other women are replacing men waxing the hair off like illegal aliens replacing Americans for the job we used to do when it paid a living wage.
Looking at open secrets can be tricky business. Top 50 industries, top repubican, to democratic, & it would be crazy to not realize in an election year they might give millions to the other party rather than bet on the other old nag in a two horse race too.
Bi-partisan works in campaign finance? Not for US in DC but for those betting on both horses, not much chance of losing that race.
That's how it works & we are losing more rights everyday. This slight of hand shell game has the American people of the United States divided. Look at the next gripe by the people. AIG is all over the news & along comes $5 billion for the big three again, 500,000 American jobs on the line, & it's criminal? Let them fail? More welfare paid by people who have already been taken by both parties in that their jobs have been given away through illegal immigration & free trade promoted by our representatives of both parties who accepted campaign $ from all over the open secrets map? Turned our once productive manufacturing country into a playground for banking which has been corrupt for over a half century, broke US, & it continues. Where does it have US, the shell game continues & people never catch on.
Bnaking has been crrupt for over a half century & people think this current financial crisis is news? The crooks have gotten away with it for so long their greed has gotten so out of control, like a meth dealer doing his own product, they can't stop. Everyday there is more news, a million here, ten million there, five billion & we'll never get this economy on solid ground. We'll never have confidence as long as another story of taxpayer $ being handed over to those responsible for this mess makes the front page every day.
Like I said before. Add up all we're paying to support this nation & it would be better, more cost effective, like GM, to pay American workers $20+ an hour with health insurance & retirement. Don't think so? Will we pay to take care of GM & the big three workers who made a living wage, health insurance, & retirement like we have for years illegal immigrants breaking our health care, & poor Americans who lost jobs due to busting unions, cutting wages, illiminating health insurance, while all the money the illegal immigrants is sent home instead of driving our economy in America?
The American worker is losing more everyday, paying more everyday, & we're expected to drive 70% of the economy? We lose more in wages, health care, & retirement while our representatives of millionaire status enjoy all these bennies, & campaign contributions while handing out billions to the crooks who contributed, & broke US. We are targeted from birth by everybody who can make a dime on US. Read fast food nation, kids in school are targeted. High school kids are targeted through credit card companies, then through college, & the rest of their lives. Hidden fees cost every America adult almost $1,000 a year.
Ask China which holds a trillion in T Bonds now dictating to US what happens on international waters & trade deficits. Clinton begging them to continue buying T Bonds making it worse, like a disease spreading slowly. Like robbing Social Security & never addressing the problem. When Social Security, Medicare, & Medicaid go broke this financial crisis, if over, will look like a walk in the park.
Does the poison food from China taste better then poison food from America? The FDA & USDA can't control the mess in America let alone inspect all the imports. Ask Mexico, drug cartels running that country, making $ all over America while we spend billions fighting their crime in both countries.
When I reported unsanitary transportation & warehousing along with kickbacks in the highly subsidized dairy industry right here in Boise at Darigold, Gov Otter covered it up with excuses like the FDA & USDA do inspections just like the peanut producer who took his product from one lab to the next until he got a pssing grade.
I'v said I before & I'll stand by it. Demand full financial disclosure by all our representatives, families, all top US officals in government agencies, FED, SEC, Treasury, IRS, INS, FDA, USDA, & all the rest. Let's see who contributed, who received, favors in return, tax cuts & all the other goodies in return, where our representatives invested their money, & the whole ball of wax.
We aren't going to get America on track until we prosecute the crooks/terrorist on our payroll in DC & those who contribute through campaign finance.
Re: A few days away.......
I agree but you have one little problem. Those that would prosecute the criminals are also in bed with them. Why would they kill the geese that lay the golden eggs? Simply stated Criminals in the justice dept are not going to prosecute their fellow criminals in the congress because the lawmakers think they are above the law and the blind public keep on putting these crooks right back in office. For all of the whining about AIG how is it that there are never any investigations into how numerous members of Congess, to be fair not all of them, are getting paid approx 160-180,000 but come out of that institution with a net worth that has generally grown millions. Talk about theft, I guess at there's at least one bi-partisan act going on in DC.
Whose life do I get, Nero's? Cavemen did this schtick.
----------
Gilligan inhaled
Simpson doesn't know what he is talking about
Congress can write any kind of tax law it wants, even one target tax law. What a nincompoop. However, I'm not happy about AIG handing out these bonuses either, but in the bigger scheme of things I wonder how much of this is a distraction when compared to the billions that have been paid out to these companies that has not been accounted for. This gives the GOP something to howl over and pretend they care about taxpayers after eight years of them using our government as their feeding trough. The GOP minority are obstructionist frauds, vehemently backed by us Idaho spuds.
On Your Knees
Kneejerk rhetoric.
Akovia, as noted below by the thoughtful tpacker, YOUR post is a classic example of how people spout their party garbage without thinking about the issue.
Turn off your talk radio.
Sieg Heil akovia
What do you want next? Enabling Acts so your party can take over the whole government and circumvent the constitution even mroe than they did with this joke of a bill? Oh I know give me that well thought out talking point from your masters that it is all the GOPs fault. Here's a news flash for you genius one party isn't the only one responsible for this mess seems to me that there are Dims in congress just like there are repukes and both of their hands are dirty. Nothing like putting party before country eh?
Akovia really doesn't know what he/she is talking about
It would appear that noted constitutional lawyers and analysts actually agree with Simpson's position. From a news story on the bill today:
Jonathan Turley, George Washington University law professor, said targeting those employees through taxes would invite a valid court challenge.
"It could well trigger years of litigation," he said. "Just because a company or individual is unpopular does not mean the government can retroactively impose punitive measures against them. ... There's a host of difficult contractual and constitutional and statutory barriers that would have to be overcome by Congress."
Two of those difficulties, lawyers say, lie in Article I of the U.S. Constitution -- a section stating Congress cannot pass any "Bill of Attainder" or "ex post facto" law.
A Bill of Attainder is an act of the legislature that singles out and punishes a group or individual without trial. An ex post facto law retroactively changes the legal consequences of an act.
Punitive Taxes
And we could add a 90% tax has the impression of being punitive- not the purpose and generally not agreed with by courts.
TARIFF. They's bad ol' puddy-tats too!
----------
Gilligan inhaled
Sorry, Bush gutted that pig.
----------
Gilligan inhaled
Congress approved
the bonus program in their stimulus bill and the Treasury dept. also approved it from fear that it could create numerous lawsuits if they tried to exclude the bonuses. Just more government trying to cover their behind on a rushed stimulus bill that was full of pork and there will be more issues that pop up and expect more quick band aids from congress to try to help save face and try to look like heros. These people had a written comittment to receive these bonuses. Now they want to exclude anyone that works for a company that received bailout money from getting bonuses? That should really create a good recruiting incentive and for rewarding great performance on the job. They may not have anyone working for our banks we bailed out. There will be new banks popping up and paying good money for good people. We know the government won't be able to compete against well run banks that will have the best people working for them. If the Treasury Sec. was talented he would be working in the private sector. More government and more spending is what we are getting and will get more of for at least another 3 and a half years.
idaborn
The AIG money was not part of the stimulus bill. Pork or not, the earmarks are an issue unrelated to the bonus payouts for what most of us regard as failure.
He's absolutely right. You guys keep forgetting from rage: BUSH!
----------
Gilligan inhaled