Congressman Blackburn On AIG
UPDATE: CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR ZACH WAMP VOTES WITH GALLUP POLLING MASSES TO AUTHORIZE CONGRESS TO TAX AT 90%!
TENNESSEE
Democrats — Cohen, Y; Cooper, Y; Davis, X; Gordon, Y; Tanner, Y.
Republicans — Blackburn, N; Duncan, Y; Roe, Y; Wamp, Y.
Congressman Marsha Blackburn ROCKS!
Here’s the highlight that makes me the proudest:
“There is no question that the whole situation is repulsive. That said, this bill sets a big government precedent that is deeply troubling. The idea that Congress can express its displeasure at an individual taxpayer by micro-targeting them and taxing them into oblivion is unacceptable, if not un-American, in my eyes. Especially since most Democrats in Congress voted to allow the bonuses to continue.”
Her presser:
CONGRESSMAN MARSHA BLACKBURN
Honored To Serve the 7th District of Tennessee
BLACKBURN OPPOSES AIG BONUS GRAB
Democrat Half Measure Can’t Cover Up For The Problem They Created
WASHINGTON – Congressman Marsha Blackburn (TN-7) today voted against H.R. 1586, a bill that will tax 90% of bonuses paid by firms who have received federal bailout funds. The legislation comes in response to public outrage over reports of multi-million dollar bonuses paid – with full White House knowledge- to AIG employees. Yesterday, Blackburn supported a Republican measure that would have denied AIG any future federal funds if they were unable to recall 100% of the bonuses. Commenting on today’s legislation, Blackburn said:
“I share my constituent’s outrage over the AIG situation. It seems we are throwing good taxpayer money after bad to save a company that may be unsalvageable. My opposition to continued federal bailouts has been, in part, because they don’t contain the kind of safeguards that could have prevented this. Indeed, we have learned after the fact that the White House stripped those safeguards from the latest Stimulus Bill.”
“There is no question that the whole situation is repulsive. That said, this bill sets a big government precedent that is deeply troubling. The idea that Congress can express its displeasure at an individual taxpayer by micro-targeting them and taxing them into oblivion is unacceptable, if not un-American, in my eyes. Especially since most Democrats in Congress voted to allow the bonuses to continue.”“Our economy is in real trouble. I spent this morning hearing from small business owners from Tennessee and around the country who were sharing their recommendations to get the economy going again. Instead of focusing on those, House leaders engaged in a week long distraction over a crisis largely of their own creation. Our President and his partisans in Congress had full knowledge of these bonuses before they were paid out, and behind closed doors made the conscious decision not to stop them. Once again the rhetoric of this Administration; the promises of transparency, accountability, and responsible government fade like so many lines on a teleprompter before the harsh light of reality.”
10 Comments so far
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[...] class warriors won this vote 328-93. Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn was not among the Yes votes, [...]
By Six Meat Buffet » Blog Archive » Politics As Professional Wrestling on 03.19.09 3:38 pm
So Duncan voted for this tyranny? I’m extremely disappointed over that. My hope is that a few of the bonus recipients file a federal suit to stop it. This is way over the top and a perfect example of what the founders foresaw would eventually happen.
Did Congress put a 90% tax on their salaries for passing legislation they never bothered to read? They won’t even stop the automatic pay raises they don’t earn.
And to top it off, those vagabonds, thugs and thieves have incited threats against these AIG employees and their families. What would wussie Barney Frank’s response be if someone threatened him for wasting trillions yet still drawing a paycheck, car allowance and perks? You can bet that fat ass would call out the national guard to protect his puckered ass.
So out of the whole Tennessee delegation there was one representative with some balls and she’s a freakin woman while the rest are eunuchs!
The train of liberty and freedom is getting stoked every day by those wood headed knuckleheads and eventually there will be enough steam built up to really vote in change.
By Rick Forman on 03.19.09 9:59 pm
Did the executives deserve their bonuses?
By SemiPundit on 03.22.09 10:32 pm
They had contracts. Does Matt Damon deserve his earnings? Even if the film flops? Per the share holders none of them deserved their bonuses. That’s why there is a civil law suit by the former CEO and share holders.
The bigger question is where is the criminal investigation into the AIG black hole and the other entities that manipulated the market into a free fall? Did those “secrettive” over night loans from the Fed to their favorite bankers to directly invest in the market have any thing to do with it?
The bonuses are a smoke screen to divert the public’s attention from the real thugs and thieves because they know mob rule is easy to get stirred up especially from a mob with government education.
By Pogo on 03.22.09 11:19 pm
Interesting, but you didn’t answer the question.
By SemiPundit on 03.23.09 9:59 am
In other words, did the executives fulfill the terms of those contracts such that they deserved the payments?
By SemiPundit on 03.23.09 10:00 am
Hard to know without seeing the specific contracts and the contract period. Could be they were from 2007 or earlier. My company provides bonuses but they often have a future redemption period that begins in the next fiscal year and sometimes lasts 3-5 years. From reports a lot of these were retention bonuses not performance related. Even at that what company would want to retain employees driving it into bankruptcy? The financial side of AIG and the priciple entity behind its collapse was primarily in Britain. That money is long gone.
Being that corruption both public and private has been pandemic there few controls available for stock holders. BoDs have been raiding companies via stock options and other payments in lieu of cash with the idea they can bail anytime the corporation fails leaving public stock holders holding an empty bag. The only recourse by the stock holders is civil action and unfortunately as we have seen the SEC is as corrupt as AIG, DC, Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Why have all the regulations for transparency, audits and oversight if there are never any investigations or legal actions?
The video by Deep Capture illustrates this very well. You can see the manipulation occurring but just like the warnings about Madoff, nothing comes of it until after the collapse.
Irregardless of whether the bonuses were justified, I fear a government that incites mobocracy to divert attention away from itself then seeks punitive action expost facto using the full force of an armed omnipotent agency like the IRS. SS would be a better reference.
This was all a convenient diversion as the Treasury and Federal Reserve like meth addicts decided to pump $1 trillion into the money supply. I think that brings the total to somewhere around $4 trillion in the last 2 years but it’s damn near impossible to determine since they stopped issuing the M3 report a year ago. This act by the Fed appears to be a desperate effort to artificially pump up the economy by intentionally introducing inflation. And the result is the Chinese are backing away from the dollar.
By Pogo on 03.24.09 10:50 am
uhm, she needs to be our next u.s. senator. she is one of the only republicans fighting the good fight. jimmy duncan and wamp, i guess, are too stupid to understand the implications of this bill. these republicans are so scared of the media that they don’t take a step back and assess what they are doing to this country. they keep falling for the dummyrats’ bag ‘o tricks! they are utter buffoons! all i can say is hooray for marsha blackburn! a very thoughtful, staunch conservative, who has the cajones(unlike her male counterparts) to vote in a way that is highly unpopular in order to advance the cause of LIBERTY!!!!
By stacy takonis on 03.26.09 8:15 pm
Why do you suppose she was passed over in favor of Palin as a VP running mate?
By SemiPundit on 03.28.09 10:16 am
Why was she passed over? She has balls, something McCain and his brother RINOs coughed up and gave to the left a long time ago.
By Pogo on 03.28.09 1:11 pm
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