Congressman Dingell – Eating the Financial World
Congressman John Dingell has put forth a proposal for a 95% tax on all bonuses paid by companies receiving federal bailout money. This comes in response to the outrage taht AIG has paid $165 million dollars in bonuses (a lot of these being “retention bonuses” meant to retain executives who had left AIG) to executives in the financial unit responsible for the bad loans that led to the financial collapse.
Congressman Dingell compared the renegotiation of financial executive contracts to those of the auto workers:
“If we can demand that decent people who wear hard hats and blue jeans must renegotiate their contracts, I see no reason those bad actors wearing neck ties and $1,000 suits should be protected from helping their country in this time of need.”
Interestingly, Dingell’s own household would be subject to this law since Debbie Dingell works for GM – a company that has taken a large amount of federal bailout money.
Kudos Mr. Dingell… This is why we need fighters like yourself in Congress.
Go for it Congressman Dingell! It’s nice to see that someone in Washington understands that there is a problem with bailed-out firms giving bonuses.
I don’t think very many American taxpayers (who now have an 80% stake in AIG) would mind if its executives–particularly those in its “financial products” division who got us into this mess in the first place–are not retained.
On a different note, AIG is making the Big Three look pretty good–at least Detroit learned that private jets are are not acceptable on the taxpayer’s dollar.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA BILL OF ATTAINER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s not a Bill of Attainder — it’s a tax. It would only be a Bill of Attainder if Dingell declared the AIG people had broken the law and prosecuted them.