The AIG Tax - Fascist Precedent

{revised, and bumped with new material..originally posted 9:15AM -e d.}

The financial genuises that make up Congress have decided that the only way to compensate for the bill that they passed allowing AIG bonuses is to create a new tax on the wing, specifically targeted to those who recieved AIG bonuses:

The House is scheduled to vote today on a bill that would levy a 90 percent tax on bonuses paid to employees with family incomes above $250,000 at companies that have received at least $5 billion in government bailout money.
"We figured that the local and state governments would take care of the other 10 percent," said Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

Nice. Whip up new wealth-aquisition taxes on the dime in order to compensate for your own stupidity. Way to go, Democrats. And make no mistake - this is the Democrat's fiasco to own:

"The fact is that the bill the president signed, which protected the AIG bonuses and others, was written behind closed doors by Democratic leaders of the House and Senate. There was no transparency," said Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

And Chris Dodd (D-Dead Man Walking) has finally stopped lying and admitted he he was responsible for adding the bonus loophole into the stimulus package that permitted AIG and other companies that received bailout funds to pay bonuses (video here).

My problem with this? It sets a horrific precedent. What other new "spur of the moment" taxes will we see to raise needed funding, or to cover the Democrat's asses? An increase in Social Security taxes overnight when the kitty runs dry? A huge "insurance tax" on both the publically and privately insured to shore up a teetering socialized medical program? An "emergency government assistance tax" on anyone making over $75,000- a year (hey, that's "rich" in New Jersey) to cover a potential financial meltdown?

This is a huge overstep by Congress in an attempt to cover their own fetid tracks, and a huge increase in federal taxation power that will be happily signed by a president who likes it that way. One can only hope one of the victims of this tax scam will bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court, as a specifically targeted tax like this is certainly not provided for in the Constitution.

Reminds me of old socialist countries - with their "windfall taxes" on the wealthy - and old fascist nations, with their punitary taxes on say, Jews, for being Jews....

Hey, don't blame me for making the comparison. While it may not be entirely apt, this is where it leads, and every slippery slope we've decended so far has taken us right to the bottom...

At Just One Minute, more outrage:

I deplore this confiscatory tax aimed at whoever Congress is mad at today. Right now it's AIG and Fannie Mae; later it will be Merrill and Citibank, and eventually it will be defense contractors, profiteering oil executives, or whomever the Congressional Dems single out as their whipping boy du jour.

Yep, just as I said above. Michelle Malkin gets it as well - First, they came for AIG bonuses...

The Wall Street Journal gets in some snark:

White House economist Larry Summers was saying the bonuses were regrettable but there wasn't much that could be done to stop them. "We are a country of law. There are contracts. The government cannot just abrogate contracts," he said, with great good sense. Assorted Congressmen then did what comes naturally, which is declare their mock outrage. Rather than keep his legendary cool, Mr. Obama and the White House panicked as well and joined the braying pack.

I like that image - Obama as a braying donkey. Expect to see protesters outside the WSJ offices by Monday, "braying" that somehow, this is a racial slur....