Only makes sense to me that if the employees have to give up 90% of their bonuses then politicians who received money from the same companies targeted by the house bill should have to cough up 90% of anything received in 2008. A presidential election year. (In full disclosure this is not my idea but one called into the Roe show on WLS I loved it though. )
What about any politicians income? Seems the government is in the middle of the biggest “Bailout” by the tax payers in history so only seems we should be able to tell them what they can make and how to run their companies. Obama Signed a 500K book deal a few weeks before his inauguration, how about giving back 90% of that and 90% of 2.5 million in royalties from his book?
Only makes sense to me that if the employees have to give up 90% of their bonuses then politicians who received money from the same companies targeted by the house bill should have to cough up 90% of anything received in 2008.
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Great idea. That brings up a question, are campaign contributions taxed at all? Nope, not according to the FEC website:
“Political organizations do not pay taxes on amounts received as contributions.”
So for 2008, the Finance, Real Estate and Insurance industry sent $463.4 Million to Washington and it was not taxed. 90% of that is $417 Million. Do you think they’ll give it back? My guess is no. What a bunch of freaking hypocrites.
In fact, if they want to model it on the bill that passed through the House yesterday, they could take it a step further: Tax 90% of the contributions that were received by the politicians of one particular political party. They could even hire Laurence Tribe to “craft” it in such a way that it would pass constitutional muster. He would simply argue that these funds are desperately needed for “fiscal” reasons, so there is no punitive intent.
In total, 161 companies approved for TARP money gave $37.5 million to federal candidates, parties and committees in the 2007-2008 election cycle, with 57 percent of that going to Democrats (post-election data is not yet available).
and American International Group (AIG), which spent $10.6 million and was paid out $40 billion
Well here’s a start. Seems politicians owe us tax payers some 33.75 million dollars AT LEAST. This is including campaign contributions only, not lobbying costs.
I also found it interesting that 165 million for employees that work at a company, have contracts etc etc is “Too much” but 10.6 million for doing nothing is “Oh that’s nothing”.
Tax 90% of the contributions that were received by the politicians of one particular political party. **They could even hire Laurence Tribe to “craft” it in such a way that it would pass constitutional muster. He would simply argue that these funds are desperately needed for “fiscal” reasons, so there is no punitive intent. **
Hold your tongue, they might do this and go after every party except the Dems and Reps. In fact I bet they could get away with that by simply saying “Those parties have no representatives here and are obviously not getting the results of representation to qualify for such donations. The tax payers deserve that money back”
*A tax on campaign contributions would be great to see. Watching the pols squirm on that would be entertaining and offensive at the same time *
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I can hear them now, “but, but, but…we can’t get reelected without that money and it would be unconstitutional. Plus we make tax laws, and we’re not going to change it.” It would be so very entertaining to watch them squirm as they spout their blatant hypocrisy.
I loved it though. )