Any law passed based on yesterday's headlines is a bad law

[question everything]

Whether it is a "Patriot Act," a high tax on bonuses or a "Three Strikes Law."

No law should be passed in a heat of emotion, and anger, and, yes, with the next campaign as a major incentive.

When we say that we are a nation of law we means that we have legislative bodies that research, debate, listen, compromise and then act a law. A law like the one that passed now, levying 90% tax on bonuses is bad. It is not difference from what we call a Kangaroo Court that is usually an example of bad.

California is notorious for passing ballot measures based on yesterday's headlines and they are a major reason why California is now in the toilet.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. So you're saying you agree with AIG getting the bonuses.

OK

[question everything]

7. Sigh. And here I thought that on DU people use their brain

instead of shooting from their hip.

Any law passing this way is a bad law. Period. The details are not relevant. They want to go after the AIG - even though they, read, Dodd, put that language there - let them at least debate about it, consider the alternatives, the outcome.

Let's hope that cooler wiser heads will prevail in the Senate.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

LOL

"And here I thought that on DU people use their brain instead of shooting from their hip."

"Any law passing this way is a bad law. Period. The details are not relevant"

Oh, the cognitive dissonance.

[Renew Deal]

16. He's right.

You're wrong.

[PBS Poll-435]

2. I tend to agree. This type of knee-jerk reaction might feel good in the short term

But this thing should have been able to have been handled in the Bureaucracy.

[FrenchieCat]

3. That's because we give this Media Gone Wild too much power.....

[question everything]

11. Look how many posts here report on what CNN and MSNBC announce

quickly, before there is even a link. I just happened to watch MSNBC when Nora (I think this is her name) was yelling at Rangel and he was trying to edge his comment that the offending language was inserted in a conference where he did not participate and this was not his bill and it really took his persistence for her to finally realize: oh, it was not you... But the way people who hold responsible positions in public and private are willing to tolerate these shouting and accusations is shameful.

Sometime I wish that a guest at Chris Matthews, for example, will just get up and say: "you obviously are not interested in what I have to say. You ask a question and immediately provide your own answer, shouting" and then leave. Jon Stewart, too, and perhaps the Fox, I've never watched anything there.

[bluesbassman]

4. Excellent point.

Besides, as ugly as the bonus payout is, it's diverting attention and energy from correcting the real problem which is that AIG and it's partners created a win-win gambling scheme that the taxpayers are being forced to cover.

[masuki bance]

5. Amazing how many on this board seem to take the same positions that boehner takes

GOP honchos slam tax on AIG bonuses

Republican leaders today slammed a Democratic bill that would tax the now-infamous AIG bonuses out of existence, but it's not clear if Republicans are completely unified in their opposition.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) called the bill “nothing more than a sham” and an effort to cover up for “the damage that’s already out there.”

But Boehner was quick to point out that he's not pushing for party unity on this bill. The Republican Study Committee this morning sent out a notice encouraging conservatives to vote against the bill, but Boehner is not trying to enforce that message.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090319/pl_politico/20223


Boehner wants Geithner gone and opposes taxing these obscene bonuses, so do many here. wtf?

[PBS Poll-435]

6. Well, I don't want Geithner gone

And the bonuses will be taxed at the highest tax bracket currently in effect.

[question everything]

8. This sounds more and more like freeperville

or Bush: you are either with us or against us.

We, Democrats, have always promoted nuances, modulations. We know that the world is not black and white. So, yes, I and, apparently, others on DU, can agree with the Republicans on one item.

We don't like the law because it is against what our legal system stands for. They take advantage of a bad situation. Can you really blame them? We would have done the same.

[Hansel]

18. It really does.

Too much emotion and not enough thought. It's time for some to take a deep breath, count to 10, and then really try to think about what the potential consequences of passing laws like these might be. The Dems are not going to be in power forever.

If you try to get some to understand the immediate unintended consequences you're defending the greedy and corrupt bastards. If you try to get them to understand potential future consequences, you're still defending the greedy and corrupt bastards. It's a one trick pony--a rabid obsession for revenge.

Kind of reminds me of the Freepers whose quest for revenge led them to be so easily suckered into believing that invading Iraq had anything to do with 911 and to rabidly attack all dem der libruls who hated Amurka for calling Bush on his BS.

Sigh.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. The hypocrisy is profound.

They want to bash dems over the AIG bonuses, and then they want AIG to keep the bonuses.

[ProSense]

10. Here's the problem with that assumption:

emergency bills for relief are passsed all the time. There are times when things need to be done expeditiously to address an urgent problem. Not everyone is stupid and gullible. There are people who understand the real nature of crises, who actually read things, and can determine if something is bogus or not.

[question everything]

12. OK. I think that such bills often have a very narrow scope

and I wish you, or someone else, could give some examples.

I don't think that the bonus bill is an emergency. After all, in the trillion plus spending, those $150 million are a drop in the bucket. But they need to start working on their next campaigns and this vote will generate miles. They hope. At least they will get mentioned in their local media.

[ProSense]

14. "After all, in the trillion plus spending, those $150 million are a drop in the bucket."

Let's give them the billions and ignore what they do. A $10 million here, a $3 billion there, who cares? Guess what: it adds up and it's all part of the larger picture: reckless management and potential fraud.

[hugo_from_TN]

19. This is certainly not an emergency.

With the bill the taxes won't be paid until next year anyway. If congress had any guts (brains, integrity, etc.) they wouldn't get suckered in by the outrage driven media and would take their time coming up with an appropriate response to the situation.

[question everything]

20. George S., on ABC, calims that this will not be a law

will be stalled in the Senate, at least.

[T Wolf]

13. Your premise rests on the idea that the system works and that all have equal access to it.

Under those ideal circumstances, laws should be reasoned and discussed and not coupled with unrelated issues and not passed in "a heat of emotion."

But the real world does not work that way.

We have to take whatever gains we can get, however we can get them.

Then, once things are "fixed" and working smoothly, go back to the ideal world.

[stklurker]

15. bonuses

I agree... As much as find the idea of the bonuses revolting, this was a not a secret, and they were retention bonuses (not performance) that they fulfilled.. The fact that there is outrage now from Congress is really absurd since they enabled it in the first place.. The even funnier part is.. if they would have just built this into their salary for the majority of them, nobody would have noticed.

And Chris Dodd... either make a stand next time, or man up and own your decision... this flip-flopping, finger pointing @#$)@#$ has got to stop.

[question everything]

17. Never thought that I will share the same opinion with Ron Paul

but, as they say about politics and bed partners.

from CNN

PAUL: Because they -- in Congress, they panic. They react minute-to-minute, whether it's passing the Patriot Act or doing all these things. They react in emotional ways. So when the banking crisis hit, instead of dealing with over the last decade, which I've been begging and pleading for them to do, they wait, and oh, there's a financial crisis. Oh, it came from too much spending, too much taxes and too much printing of money. So what do they do? They spend more. They blindly appropriate this money, and I just think the whole process is outrageous. And we're on the verge of a major crisis. We're in the middle of it, and it will get a lot worse.

You know, the day we did this -- on Thursday -- was the day after the Federal Reserve announced, Oh, OK, we're going to buy another $1.25 trillion worth of government debt and mortgage debt, and the dollar goes down 3 percent, and the next morning it goes down 1.5 percent, and we're talking about these bonuses, about passing an unconstitutional law in a way to punish people.

So they compile their mistakes, and they avoid looking at the real problem. And even in my statement on the floor, I said, what we ought to be talking about is, why don't we find out from the Fed what they're doing with these trillions of dollars? But we're not even allowed to ask them questions. The Fed doesn't have to answer any questions...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/20/ron.paul.stimulus.transcript/