‘This Week’ Roundtable: Bonus Backlash

If you monitor the comments on the Internet, there is a growing polarization growing between those that represent the wealthy and politically influential verses those who have lost their savings and livelihood. This has me concerned because the taxpayer outrage over the AIG bonuses is a prime example of how the current conditions match that of the causes of the French Revolution. Do to the similarities of the times, members of Congress should read the causes for the French Revolution of 1789-1799 on Wikipedia.
I am NOT calling for revolution, but simply comparing the similarities that led to events past and present. Such as hunger, homelessness, unmanageable national debt, greed, high unemployment, the financing of multiple wars while not funding social needs, high food prices, the El Niño effect, support of revolutionaries overseas (American Colonies vs. Iraq), social burdens at home caused by war, the leadership’s military failures and ineptitude, the lack of social services for war veterans, the burden of a grossly inequitable system of taxation and conflicts over financial advisers and reporting transparency.
In addition, there were/are social and political factors, many of which involve resentments and aspirations. For example, do today’s wealthy and politically influential (bourgeoisie) merchant class and banking interests project a similar image to that of the aristocratic ruling class of the French 1790′s?
While there are many differences between now and the French Revolution, how many similarities must there be before we begin to work together to prevent the prospect of another revolution? I fear that the AIG bonuses, and those to come at other banking institutions, have already started our next revolution and that the conflict between the banks and the taxpayers will widen and the hostilities begin.

Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe says a high tax on bonuses paid to executives by companies receiving bailout funds could likely be structured in a way to avoid constitutional problems.
Some proposals are circulating to tax bonuses at rates varying from 70 percent to 100 percent as a way to recoup the $165 million paid to executives at AIG, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports.
One issue is whether such a bill violates the Constitution’s ban on Bills of Attainder that punish a person or group without a trial. Tribe told the Wall Street Journal that Congress could avoid that constitutional problem with a broad bill that doesn’t target “a closed class of named executives.” Also blunting any Bill of Attainder challenge would be the fact that the aim of the tax is fiscal rather than punitive, and it would apply in the future as well as retroactively, Tribe wrote in a summary posted at the Atlantic.
Another issue is whether retroactive taxes violate the ex post facto clause. Actually, it’s a nonissue, Tribe says. “The ex post facto clause applies exclusively to criminal punishment and poses no difficulty here,” Tribe told the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.
Tribe also addressed whether the law would violate the contracts clause, the takings clause and the due process clause in the Wall Street Journal Law Blog interview. He saw no problem. Many courts have ruled requirements for substantive due process are not violated if the legislation has a rational legislative purpose, “something nobody could deny in this instance,” according to Tribe.
The Wall Street Journal also points out that a tax rate approaching 100 percent is not unprecedented. The top federal income-tax rate was once 90 percent, and some excise taxes on specific transactions have hit 100 percent.

Former Secretary Robert B. Reich is absolutely correct. A crime has not only taken place here, it is ongoing.
The additional $30 billion line of credit from the U.S. Treasury that was made available to AIG needs to be appropriated to the U.S. Department of Justice for hiring investigators, auditors and prosecutors to pursue extortion and fraud claims against AIG and its directors, and unjust enrichment claims against any AIG counter-parties who were paid-off with money provided by the U.S. Treasury. All of this money, including the $165 million paid in employee bonuses can be recovered by having a U.S. federal court, in equity, impose a constructive trust over that money obtained by AIG through its extortion and fraud against the federal government.

The fact is-most of these commentators know nothing of what the ordinary american thinks..nor do they care…george will is inbedded in republican dogma and can’t be expected to offer a solution that speaks to what americans feel, or their problems, he is neither accurate or articulate

I am angry at the Congress. We never hear about the damage they did to create this meltdown. Now they appear so innocent. They even did not take their raises this year. I am sure under protest. However they tripled their “expense accounts”. Like from $30,000 to 90,000. Is that any worse than AIG? Do you ever hear about this? I am now sure that Nancy Pelosi and Rom Emanuel are running the country. God save us!

Cowgirl, I agree.
I am a former employee of BearStearns and can testify to the idea that markets unfettered by government regulations will do just fine. There is a new book out about BearStearns if anyone is interested that details the level of corruption and selfishness that motivates Wall St.
I walked away after working for most major Wall St. firms and can tell you in all honesty that the whole basket is nothing more that legallized theft, on the retail comsumer level or institutional level. Greed motivates and drives every decision. My former manager at Morgan Stanley put it well, “Frog, we are not here to investment money for the longterm. We are hear to generate commission sales. Regradless of an investment being up or down, sell or buy. Commissions bring bigger checks for all of us.”
George Will is the most simple minded man I have seen on TV given his position. He is clinging to ideas of his hero, Ronald Reagan, another very simple minded man (and I am holding back on my true thoughts about these two.)
Faced with all historical evidence to the contrary, George Will continues to warn us in his banal bag of brains “YOU JUST WAIT AND SEE. YOU JUST WAIT AND SEE.” How pathetic!
I do simpathize, however. It is a terrible thing to see every idea, concept and theory you have held to be true over so many years completely collapse in such a horrific and disastrous way as we see today. But it is unforgivable to continue to cling to them in face of all evidence showing them for what they are and refuse to be big enough, humble enough or intelligent enough to realize the error and work positively for a new approach. George Will (and, in general, all these republican demagogues)cannot give up and only offer the most consistent ridiculous rants: let the market take care of itself and all will be just fine, deregulate, cut taxes further, spend nothing (fine when democrats are in, but it’s a very different story when republicans are in office. In the latter case, spend all you can but only give the money to the rich and massively incompetent, overpaid executives.)
If the market were to take care of itself, all major US banks would fail, the auto industry would fail, companies would be collapsing on all sides, millions of people would be thrown into huge tent cities and complete poverty, and the $10 to $100 million a year CEOs would simple walk off saying “its not our fault, we didn’t do it, how could we have predicted that our business were operation on completely bogus business models?”

Mr. Frog. There is a video clip circulating of Ma and Pa Kettle explaining how they conclude that 5 into 25 =14, which fits todays financial climate. That bear sterns and others used fuzzy math or simple thievery is an understatement but then so does the government that is joined at the hip with wallstreet.. There are plenty of medium sized banks, many large companies, all over this country that are honest, treat their customers honestly and operate with the utmost integrity.
To go and place a “special Tax” on one group is dangerous, reeks of a Soviet style government and makes me wonder who is next. If they are serious about seeking justice they should investigate who caused what, were there laws broken and if so punish the guilty. Having the Congress and press whip the public to a frenzy and sending mobs of people to the homes of the “guilty” is akin to the days of public lynchings.
This broo ha ha is nothing more than deflection of the ineptness of politicians to do their job.

You voted for Obama …
You got a socialist!
What did you expect anyway?
A free lunch?

I want RON Paul on. PLEASE these talk alike look alike people you have on are boring. THEY really are nothing but old 60′s radicals and people that are party over substance.

Some have been saying that Mr. Geithner got go go. I, however, after seeing a clear evidence, would rather have Mr. Geithner stayed and Mr. Obama gone.

Fellow Republicans , I heard that the FBI and CIA were sending covert agents to all of the tea parties to gather information/names .
Patriotic Republicans , be warned !!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The CIA are not allowed to act on American soil. They are not a national agency. BUT I am going to DC if I can on July 4th ENOUGH lets march!

AIG is only alive at this time because of the bailout cash, the PIGxecutives or any employee of a bailout corporation has NO business getting a bonus … period. The PIGS are stealing the bailout money, people should go to jail. Start with Bernie Maddoff, put him in a small cell with long-dong-silver, confiscate his everything, his fugly wife’s everything, his incompetent children’s everything, his close & distant relatives everything, his barber, his rabbi, his gold teeth, his colonostopy doctor, and even his gay lover.
WE THE PEOPLE approved a $700b bailout that is now 1.3 trillion, expected to reach 4 trillion in 4 years, projected to be at 8 trillion in 10 years. At a time when there is a baby boom production of which 42% are single mothers with no means to provide basic needs to the leaches being born. Good job parents of America! May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the c_r_o_t_c_h of every lazy freeloader, every incompetent larda$$, and every corporate PIGxecutive dead weigh on this awesome country of ours.

Chicago Bob,you might want to read my first entry about the consitutionality of taxing the bonuses, I went looking for some consitutional authority for this…since i am offended by people who have no standing on this issue speaking out–on that which they no nothing of…which includes reporters, politicians and bloggers.

Why do liberals keep chiding us fiscal, constitutional,and social conservatives that “we must work together” to save our country, when in actuality they mean we must shut up and concede to their un-American policies?
For those of you that thought GW Bush was a bad president, “you ain’t seen nuttin yet!”

Back away from all the heat about AIG, greed on Wall Street and look for the root causes of both our nation’s economic dilemma and the use of $165M for bonuses to losers paid from taxpayer money. Back away from the blame game and look for light on the problem. I suggest the systemic cause of all this is favoritism, or what I would characterize as corruption. That corruption rises from Washington having the power to take from one American by taxation and give to another by a wide range of programs fronm those designed to help the truly needy to those cynically paying off campaign contributors. McCain recognized the problem when he got sucked into the Keating Five mess and with a Democrat introduced McCain-Feingold reform. It is under attack as a violation of the freedom of speech Ammendent One, and probably should be. It was flawed by passing through the political process which it would disrupt. This reform should be revisited but in a much broader context. It is one part of the circuit from taxes to transfer payments to payoffs to more taxes or debt. It is the most amenable to reform, and thus the best place to start. I favor limiting campaign contributions to individuals so we can see who is laying out the money and draw our own conclusions as to their motivation. In a longer view I suggest we review the balance of the corrupt vicious circle and I ask whether government ought not be limited to setting rules assuring “Equal Justice Under Law” and eschewing the role of addressing every human need that fosters this corruption of congress. For millenia, since before the dawn of man, creatures banded together VOLUNTARILY to address their common problems, and it worked pretty well. Government, with the ability to tax, is not a VOLUNTARY association. I’m kinda revolutionary in these thoughts, and I welcome comment from YOU on them. Until then, stick a cork in all the invective in these blogs directed at one party, one President, or the other. In the final chapter of his book, “Parliament of Whores”, P. J. O’Rourk used a local town’s experience to show how everybody wants something done by them (government). His book up til then had described the ridiculous excesses of Washington. That final chapter showed, as Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and they is us”. In the name of freedom please consider what you get from the government, what you have wanted from the government, and how these things inevitably lead to the corruption against which we are all united.

Richard: read my entry which precedes yours. If you want to “understand” start with a search for the cause (NOT the blame) of the screwups. As I suggested, they’re rooted in the government being able to force you to give up your money for whatever cause lines their pockets. Yet here you are saying “why doesn’t the take action….” Why don’t we take action to limit what the government does do? Look hard at your complaints; they originate with a government which lied to the people you describe, telling them they could have credit to buy what they couldn’t afford. As I said, there’s plenty of blame to go around; but are YOU blameless, or are those who over-borrowed blamelsee?

I meant to say I hope the Democrats will fight Republican repetition of lies with Democratic repetition of refutation and put out the facts so the public won’t buy into GOP hogwash that the GOP repeats over and over with the press’s help to wear down the public and capitalize on the public not knowing the facts of any given situation. That is how the Third Reich propagated its lies also. Repetition in the press.