NY Post - March 19, 2009
The pitchfork-and-torch crowd that would be Congress is coming after AIG and its now infamous bonuses, and it may further damage America's fragile financial system in the process.
That's because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, given an opening by the anger over the $165 million in bonuses paid to AIG bigs, says the House will suspend its rules today and vote to impose a confiscatory 90 percent income tax on the AIG bonuses and perhaps those given after Dec. 31 to top executives at all companies that got more than $5 billion in government bailout money.
Similar legislation is in the works in the Senate, and a bill could pass as early as next week.
Talk about overreach. And Pelosi's partner in pernicious demagoguery, New York Rep. Charles Rangel, knows it.
Yes, last night he had this to say: "When you weigh the harm that AIG and other bad actors have done to the system, our economy and American families . . . there is no question this legislation is the best decision we can make."
But as recently as Tuesday, he said he opposed take-all taxes on bonus money: "It's difficult for me to think of the [tax] code as a political weapon."
Well, not too difficult, it seems. (continues...)
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