WASHINGTON (AP) -- Denouncing a "squandering of the people's money," lawmakers voted decisively Thursday to impose a 90 percent tax on millions of dollars in employee bonuses paid by troubled insurance giant AIG and other bailed-out companies.
In some cases the bonuses might be taxed 100 percent leaving the recipients with nothing.
It was only this past weekend that the bailed-out insurance giant paid bonuses totaling $165 million to employees, including traders in the Financial Products unit that nearly brought about AIG's collapse.
AIG has received $182.5 billion in federal bailout money and is now 80 percent government owned.
Disclosure of the bonuses touched off a national firestorm that both the Obama administration and Congress have scurried to contain.
The House vote was 328-93. Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate and President Barack Obama quickly signaled general support for the concept.
"I look forward to receiving a final product that will serve as a strong signal to the executives who run these firms that such compensation will not be tolerated," the president said in a statement.
"We want our money back now for the taxpayers," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "It isn't that complicated."
"For the taxpayers?" Give me a break. They want the money back for another wasteful spending program, not the taxpayers.
One of two things will happen should this legislation stand up to court scrutiny. No one in his right mind will accept a job with a company that took bailout funds, meaning those companies will lose talent they could really use to fix their problems. Secondly, any future employment contracts for the lesser lights who want to risk having themselves publicly harrangued by Congress will not include bonus language. They'll simply take what would have been paid as bonuses and prorate it into the salary.
Not a dime will be saved "for the taxpayers".
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