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We're going to levy a 90%-100% tax on these AIG bonuses. What got me thinking, though, is "is this even constitutional?" Leno asked Obama this question on his show and I feel as if Obama didn't truly answer the question, but rather skittered around it as most politicians do for touchy subjects. But while it clearly has a sense of justice/ethics/principal behind taxing these bonuses, I have to think "why are we allowed to do that"? In the grand scheme of things, 165 million isn't a gamebreaking amount of money. And besides, these bonuses had been promised to these AIG executives a year (or is it years?) ago, before we entered this recession. What ever gave us the right to say "oh we're pissed at you so we're going to take away your $1 million"? Where in the constitution does it say we can do that? But then again, does it say we can't?It feels like the right thing to do. But is it the right thing to do? This is, after all, such an insanely selective tax increase. I think this tax on AIG's bonuses is right from a moral standpoint, but where does Congress get the legal power to pull this off?
2 comments:
I think the government should instead focus on trying to prevent the bonuses legally. As much as AIG would like everyone to believe the contracts are etched in stone, they really are not. Extreme circumstances can be cited to breech contracts without penalty; many businesses (especially financial companies) are already doing that, citing the economic downturn as something that has happened under no fault of either party making performing the duties of the contract impossible. There are other legal ways to breech a contract that I'm sure the Justice Dept. can decipher. It is important to remember that ultimately our country is ruled by the subjective rule of judges, who use the objective rule of law to guide their decisions. There is always a grey zone.
Even with the grey zone, the government, I feel should be able to explain how they are doing the things many of us believe and know are not right. They should be able to tell us, the people, how they do the things they do, when asked. It seems as if everytime that they get asked questions about so called "grey zones" they don't ever answer it straight. They always are trying to find ways around it.
My thoughts on AIG though when dealing with the issue the government is able to do it. They were given money as a bailout with our tax money and then they turn around and give out millions in bounces, thats just not right. I would be totally ok with how the government is preasuring them to give the money back and telling us how they are doing it.
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