All the public outrage at AIG paying bonuses to its top people with public money lead Congress to pass an unconstitutional law to tax those bonuses at a 90% tax rate. While I can appreciate the political win this was for Dems, because the angry public will like what Congress did, but half of Republicans voted for a 90% tax bracket. Genius.
Nevertheless, passing an obvious unconstitutional law, even though it will never get through the Senate, is a momentous waste of time. There is serious stuff that needs to be done. Anger like this is a flash in the pan, these political stunts don't address the anger that will still be there a month from now.
We blew up our constitution in a fit of fear following 9/11 and now anger over legal employment contracts, lead to a willingness to violate the constitution. Shameful.
President Obama nailed it on the head on Leno's show, these practices are legal. And that is a problem.
But, if President Obama thinks he can handle all this stuff with laws, he is nuts. The money will find a way.
The AIG bailout is a distraction from the much more serious issues facing us. Even the price tag of the bonus is dwarfed by the what, trillion that the government has printed? Here comes inflation to eat away at my retirement...what the market downturn didn't get, inflation can eat away at, too. Yippee.
I hope President Obama can fix this mess. But, I don't think anyone, really, if they are honest, really knows how to do it. There are ideologues of all stripes, but they operate more on maintaing the truth of their ideology than fixing the problem.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
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1 comment:
I do think it is important to do something about the bonuses. It is outrageous to think that anyone could get a bonus without performing. If nothing else, this egregious example shows that executive compensation is out of control. It contributes to the huge gap between the haves and the have nots. Hopefully something will be done about this problem, at least.
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