Congress is drunk on power. It's over-reacting to uninformed public outrage by throwing the Constitution out the window, under the bus, and down the river. At light speed.
I'm not exactly crazy about those bailout execs living it up on the taxpayer tab, but, for crying out loud! Tax legislation like yesterday's 90% confiscation from a targeted group is precisely why the Founders prohibited Bills of Attainder in the Constitution! Check out Article I, sec. 9. It's pretty darn specific: no laws may be passed that have a "negative effect on a single person or group."
What's even scarier is how quickly they got it done. The bill passed after only 40 minutes of debate. Did they learn nothing about "haste makes waste" (and damn bad law) after the Economic Stimulus steamroller?
I pray that at least one of the bonus recipients challenges the constitutionality of this sucker, or we'll find ourselves on a slope the slipperiness of which has never been envisioned.
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Lots of press on this one and deservedly so. The law most certainly WILL be challenged; I'll give you dollars to donuts on that, Moogie.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things brought up in discussions I've seen is a lot of the bonus recipients are "dollar a year" men who voluntarily gave up the Big Bucks to help pull their companies out of the fire. Take away their bonuses and they are left without compensation of ANY sort. That's the group from whence I believe the lawsuits will originate.
As for Congress learning? Heh. It is to laugh, eh?