So the big news last week was that after receiving a $182 billion bailout from the Federal government AIG paid out $162 million in retention bonuses.  A retention bonus is a way to keep the rats from jumping off a sinking ship by offering a big piece of cheese if the rats stays put.  Lets face it if your a big top level employee at a company you can probably find another job without much fear even in this economy .  I know my company is in the market for another VP after losing one to another company.  The fact is the employees know the company is in the shitter so why not get the heck out of of Dodge?  Oh yeah, how about a nice big retention bonus?

After word got out that these bonuses were paid, public outcry was loud enough for the pollsters to take note.  Instead of letting AIG file for bankruptcy and allowing them to work through their problems, the government had to step in and mess things up.  The bsill ware crafted to bailout these companies and they even allowed companies like AIG, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to honor their contractual retention bonuses.  If these companies had filed for bankruptcy these contractual retention bonuses wouldn't have been paid out. 

So what did the opinion poll minded politicians do?  They cried outrage and instead of looking for the logical solution, paying AIG $182 million less on their next bailout payment, they crafted a bill that is illegal under the Constitution.  Article I, section 9, clause 3 of the United States Constitution states: "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."  This means is there can' be an "act of legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a trial can."  

With a House vote of 328-93 an act of legislature was passed to tax the AIG bonuses at 90%.  I fully expect the Democrats to attempt to pull this kind of crap because they only view the Constitution as an annoyance but that vote means 85 Republicans also voted for this bill to pass.  Those Republicans are a bunch of cowards!  This is why traditionally conservative individuals like myself have such a hard time supporting the party of lesser evil.  Republicans should be leading the charge against this kind of injustice, not following in line like sheep.

Now most of these politicians are from a law background.  They know this bill will not hold up in court.  What they are hoping for is some liberal leaning judges choose to ignore the Constitution and spit in the faces of our fore fathers.   Those politicians are just concerned about what the masses want and are hoping it turns into votes in two years.  I fully expect to hear people calling me up in 15 months telling me my Republican house representative didn't vote for this bill and he should be voted out because he's helping the rich get richer.  When they call I will tell them he voted to uphold the constitution and that is why he's earned my vote in November!  Thank you Michele Bachman, John Kline and Erik Paulson, I'll be more than willing to contribute to your re-election campaigns.

Source:
Wikipedia - Bill of Attainder
Yahoo - House passes bill taxing AIG
Reuters - Frank wants Fannie, Freddie bonuses halted