Woot! (4.00 / 5)

Another victory for the House of Representatives, currently the best avenue for progressive change in America.

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by: TValley @ Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 18:16:56 PM CDT

don't cheer til we see if it has real teeth after the Senate and "Conference" and (4.00 / 1)

the Administration itself is done with it.

The executive compensation thing that ended up in the stimulus had absolutely no teeth at all, as we see.

And the Fed and Administration still desperately wants private financial and hedge firms, etc, to buy stuff (and is going to pay them to do it) -- none of them want any restrictions like a "bonus tax" -- at all.

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by: amberglow @ Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 18:50:30 PM CDT

Oh, the heady days of last fall... (4.00 / 3)

...when we were all caught up in discussions of whether or not the Obama Presidency would be transformational and realigning.

Now we're grasping at the mere possibility of a symbolic gesture against one relatively minor incident of corporate rape by the hedge find class against the American people.

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by: Sportin' Life @ Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 20:30:00 PM CDT

Arguably unconstitutional (4.00 / 3)

as a bill of attainder. Close call.

Taxes aren't usually consiudered punishment, but there've been cases which ruled otherwise in extreme circumstances.

After States passed Drug Stamp taxes in the '80s, without removing the Criminal penalties under the Uniform Controlled Substances Act, the 7th Federal Circuit, and I think a couple others, held the tax unconstitutional as double jeopardy.



This is a Test of the Emergency Free Speech System. This is only a Test. In an actual Free Speech Emergency, I'll be locked up.

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by: Ben Masel @ Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 21:51:33 PM CDT

I think it is (4.00 / 2)

moreover, I am not convinced that the retroactive application of the tax is legal either.  

Not that the legality of this matters to anyone in any way.

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by: fladem @ Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 23:00:54 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Martin Sheen, Pres. Jed Bartlett said just that (0.00 / 0)

On an episode of West Wing in 2001 called The War at Home, Martin Sheen, as Jed Bartlett, tells his wife 2 important things we need to keep in mind now.

Presidents only have 18 months to get anything good done and that's because "the people who make us do it"

Jed Bartlett or the writer and creator Aaron Sorkin must have been good students of FDR.

"Incrementalism isn't a different path to the same place, it could be a different path to a different place"
Stoller

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by: debcoop @ Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 22:32:45 PM CDT

meh (0.00 / 0)

Hooray for wasting a bunch of time.  And -- more importantly -- driving away anyone who would actually help us get out of this mess and write down AIG's books.

Who in their right mind would stay at AIG (you know, that company that we own 80% of) now?  When they're capped at $125K yearly income?  And by staying at AIG they can be subject to death threats?  And work a job with no future?

Every competent person will leave.  Well done caving in to the demands of an irrational public.  This isn't the leadership I was hoping for.

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by: ccarollo @ Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 22:41:13 PM CDT

Firing those responsible is the first step to fixing AIG (4.00 / 1)

When the FDIC takes over a company, the first people to go are those responsible for the bad loans which have brought down the company. You bring in honest people to try to clean things up.

In the case of AIG, we have a much better and simpler solution, since the government didn't guarantee its debt, as the FDIC does deposits. You copy the system that is being successfully used with municipal bond insurers like MBIA to rescue their essential bond insurance function from the bad CDS gambles they made (virtually the same situation as AIG). We separate the good, honest business as subsidiaries of the main company (AIG is pretty much already structured that way). They are then insulated from a parent company default. Then you allow the parent to default and go into bankruptcy, if necessary. If some particular CDS gambles must be paid off to save the world economy, we can do that, but now we're freed of paying all the gambles that weren't.

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by: FairEconomist @ Fri Mar 20, 2009 at 00:03:08 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I agree (0.00 / 0)

Firing those responsible is important.  But this law will eliminate ALL competent folks at AIG, regardless of whether they were responsible or not.

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by: ccarollo @ Fri Mar 20, 2009 at 00:11:54 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

They're already gone (0.00 / 0)

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by: dfr1417 @ Fri Mar 20, 2009 at 01:02:27 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Reminds me of an old joke (0.00 / 0)

Some comedian was talking about the difference between the US and the UK.

In the US we see someone drive by in an expensive car and we think "I want to be that person and have that car..."

In the UK you see someone drive by in an expensive car and you think "I'm going to beat him up and burn his car..."

I think we are at the point of being like the UK version.

I don't condone violence but the fraudsters have got to go and someone needs to go to jail.

I doubt the tax will pass in the Senate and I really don't think it will pass a court test if it is passed especially if it attempts to tax any bonus already given out.

Probably what will happen is the GOP will force an amendment that will apply the tax to auto workers just for spite.

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by: cadfile @ Fri Mar 20, 2009 at 00:12:19 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

It Will Be Entertaining (4.00 / 1)

to watch the Republican hypocrites squirm as the bill moves to the Senate.

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by: bob h @ Fri Mar 20, 2009 at 06:41:56 AM CDT

This is good. (0.00 / 0)

It is like the cafeteria scene in a prison movie, when the big bald lifer grabs the new guy's tray and throws it to the ground.

Obama either shivs AIG right now or else he spends the rest of his term swabbing their toilet.

Montani semper liberi

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by: Sadie Baker @ Fri Mar 20, 2009 at 07:01:20 AM CDT

i bet they just start to call it "merit pay" or something, instead of a bonus -- (0.00 / 0)

both the House and Senate versions are full of many many openings for them to exploit going forward.

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by: amberglow @ Fri Mar 20, 2009 at 08:48:28 AM CDT