Curse

Winterclaw · Mar 26, 2009, 09:20 PM // 21:20

Obama's stimulus bill was passed and it allowed AIG executives to receive the much hated retention bonuses. The fact that it was in the bill alone makes this administration look suspicious. Anyways some of those executives decided to give back at least part of the money. Later Obama said he wanted to create a 90% tax on what the government already permitted to reclaim the rest of the money.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Article I, Section 9 US constitution

No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

So doesn't the constitution prohibit the president from reclaiming those bonuses since this is after they were payed out.

Savio · Mar 26, 2009, 09:41 PM // 21:41

They aren't being accused of some crime, so I'm not sure what ex post facto has to do with it. However, the way you worded the problem, I'm not sure if you're viewing this objectively anyway, so what do I care?

Winterclaw · Mar 26, 2009, 09:59 PM // 21:59

So ex post facto is only to crimes and not to taxation... in other words if the congress wants to go back and tax you for something you've been doing untaxed for years and tax you for all those years, it is both constitionally legal as well as moral to do so?

And I'm having this problem objectively for one reason: the government owns 80% of AIG and from what I've heard. Like from here

Quote:

Mr. Bernanke’s team at the Fed and Mr. Geithner’s team at Treasury, moreover, were reluctant to impose what they viewed as “punitive” and possibly self-defeating pay restrictions on companies being bailed out.

In early February, Mr. Geithner opposed a provision in the economic stimulus bill that would have slapped a steep tax on the kind of bonuses that A.I.G. was about to pay.

...

In late November, after A.I.G.’s plight became worse and the Treasury jumped in with a $40 billion capital infusion, the three agencies negotiated cuts in bonuses and salaries for many of the company’s top executives.

This is why I'm suspecious. The Bush administration worked hard to keep Obama's incoming team informed and up to date. As far as I can tell, they knew or should have known about the bonuses before they passed Obama's stimulas package.

Then all of a sudden AIG's bonuses came out, there was a big public outcry, and now Obama is seemingly using this as an excuse to try and nationalize even more banks and financial institutions.

My intuetion is telling me that Obama's team intentionally set up AIG to use as fall guys. Most people just hear about 165 million dollar bonuses and get upset (yet they don't seem to worry about the trillion dollar bonus, aka bailout, the government gave out). After hearing about that little snippet they get upset. Now Obama can come in and play the hero by taking over all those "evil" companies.

Snow Bunny · Mar 26, 2009, 10:04 PM // 22:04

US vs. Carlton. 1994