Democrats prepare to ditch AIG bonus bill

[biopowertoday]

Source: wsws.org




Democrats prepare to ditch AIG bonus bill
By Tom Eley
25 March 2009

Within days of the overwhelming passage by the House of Representatives of a bill imposing a 90 percent surtax on bonuses awarded by the insurance giant American International Group (AIG) and other firms that have received government bailout money, the Democratic leadership in both the House and the Senate have signaled they will drop the measure.

On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said, "If the money is returned, the legislation may no longer be necessary." This followed the previous day's announcement by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that 15 of 20 top AIG executives had returned their bonuses.

On the Senate side, Majority Leader Harry Reid on Monday said the chamber would delay consideration of its version of the House bill until sometime next month—supposedly to allow Republicans more time to study the legislation.

The turnaround follows statements by President Obama and top administration officials over the last several days distancing themselves from the congressional bills and reassuring the financial elite that they will impose no serious limits on executive compensation in return for the continuing flood of taxpayer money to the largest financial institutions....................

Read more: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/geit-m25.shtml

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I am not surprised as after the initial outcry, it seems lukewarm at best.

[bemildred]

1. They don't want to remind us that 90% tax rates are legal and possible. nt

[twitomy]

8. Exactly. Truth is

when we allowed govt to tax income via the amendment to the Constitution, they got the power to take it ALL.

[Fluffdaddy]

2. It was a damn stupid bill anyway

[tritsofme]

3. Who didn't see this one coming after the phony grandstanding fest last week?

There was no way this bill was to become law, it was just a device for the politicians to stomp their feet and yell over the week's latest outrage.

[biopowertoday]

5. and now the congresscritters will just hope it dies and

fades away like footprints in the sand.

[Alhena]

4. The fatcats win as always- never doubted it for a second. Next time

I hope Congress spares us the Kabuki theatre of faux outrage.

[FailureToCommunicate]

6. Fine, drop the 90% on a few. But how about going back to higher rates on wealthy

and millionaires? Just back to rates around the time of Reagan. AND get the IRS to go hard after corporate and individual tax cheats: Budget deficits solved.

[mike_c]

7. a comprhensive reform bill would tax those bonuses into the future....

I'm not familiar with the current bill, so I don't know how restricted it was/is. But it seems to me that real reform of executive compensation is needed, and the one-time give-back at AIG is not reform in any sense. On the other hand, legislation that permanently raises the tax rate on executive bonuses would do much to discourage the practice of outrageous compensation for mediocre performance.

It's a cultural problem, IMO. We've encouraged the creation of an executive culture that condones and now demands extreme compensation for people who simply do their jobs, no matter how well they actually perform, or whether they actually benefit society at large. A couple of levels down the hierarchy workers struggle to excel just to keep their employment at whatever salary or wage they're offered. I'm tired of the double standard the elevates "executives" into a different class.

[bagrman]

9. Wait for the next distraction and this will fade away.

[mbperrin]

10. Look! It's a Mexican drug lord! And he's right there in YOUR

living room!!!!!!

You're so cynical...

[Raston]

12. He's also right.

If you're not angry, you're not paying attention.

- Raston

[bagrman]

13. No Ablo Se

[pattmarty]

11. What's needed is to go to a simple indexed system......................

...................that will have rates indexed at say below 40K, then 100K, 200K 400k and so on with the actual tax percentage rate increasing say up to a max of 50%, with NO DEDUCTIONS and the inflation rate pegged to 2009 rate of inflation. Not too bad off the top of my head, simple and effective AND where no one could "game" the system.