IRONY ALERT! Republicans vote to tax the rich

[auditor0007]

What a hoot. The House Republicans split right down the middle...half of them voted to tax the AIG bozos.

I don't think the AIGers should lose their bonuses, btw, if they have acted criminally they should be charged.

But what a freaking riot to see the Republicans tax the rich!!!

I wonder if these AIGers will join in the Tax Day Teaparty Revolution.

could it be they want the money back that they never wanted them to get in the first place....

I doubt it. I think it has more to do with the fact that roughly 88% of Americans think the AIG employees shouldn't get the bonuses.

I don't think they should get the bonuses. But that is besides the point. What Congress just did goes completely against the Constitution. Maybe tomorrow, Congress will determine they don't like you personally, so now they can make a law retroactively to tax only you at triple your normal rate.

 

[editec]

Much as I'd hang the lot at AIG, I gotta side with that half of the Republicans who voted against this move.

Turning the IRS into the governments means to punish the wicked is a mistake, I think.

Personally I'd like to see the former stockholders of AIG go after the management responsible for this. I think these guys should be stripped of all their wealth and that wealth returned to the people whose trust they betrayed.

Even more than the American people, those are the victims of these venal men and woman.

 

[garyd]

What they bought the Fannie and Freddie derivatives Barney and Sodd vouched for and then found out after the fact that they were essentially worthless? How is that their fault.

 

[Care4all]

Although I too do not think AIG should pay these million dollar bonuses to these people, i do not feel comfortable at all in changing their income tax rate, after the fact.

It is legal though. Yes, it is legal. In our IRS code, it says they can change our taxes at anytime for any reason, even AFTER the fact! Political Chic posted an article on this the other day, showing where clinton, ford, and other presidents had congress change the tax code midstream and in effect, taxing after the fact and i believe it might have been upheld by the courts...

c

 

[editec]

What they bought the Fannie and Freddie derivatives Barney and Sodd vouched for and then found out after the fact that they were essentially worthless? How is that their fault.

I'm presuming the above is directed at me, right?

As far as I can understand it, nothing in your post here bears much relationship to reality, so I really have no idea how to respond to it.

AIG was the creator numerous dubious financial instruments, like dereivatives and credit default swaps.

Some of them were mortgaged based, some of them merely based on corporate debts.

Moodys and Standard and Poor were the companies which assigned their debt instruments their ratings.

You might start to read a bit about this subject here.

Right now, nobody really fully understands all the schemes and deals that AIG put together, but your simplistic take on the subject is basically completely wrong.

No offense.

 

[garyd]

Uh edit All of that was going on for years without causing anyone any problems until all of a sudden the financial derivatives coming out of the subprime mortgage market entered into the picture.