munky to government: Back Off!
The Sheriff of Nottingham from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
I love the government’s solution to the bonus situation. Tax em to death on it. I thought we were supposed to be protected from such things, I guess not.
I was listening to the radio today, and the guy had some very valid points for the executives receiving bonuses.
A) They were retention bonuses, which are much different than performance bonuses
B) When the government first made its moves to bailout AIG, Chris Dodd, the man who originated the idea of taxing them to death, passed by the opportunity that would’ve prevented this debacle in the first place. They didn’t.
Mainly, I’m most concerned over the implications of this. The government is showing an awful amount of force over a relative small amount of money, which when these bonuses were decided, were not government funds. In fact, I didn’t even see this kind of energy against terrorism or to help the victims of Katrina. So the government finally decides to wake up to the tune of money.
Yet if they pull off this “special” tax provisions, a few things could be had. If the government could step out of line on this, it leaves open a powerful precedent for it to tax anyone for anything just because they don’t feel like it. I could be charged a blog tax because I’m posting against them. Who knows?
The other concern with this “special” tax provision: what happens if they screw it up – in typical bureaucratic practice – and it ends up taxing far more. Say you’ve barely scraped through the whole year, but your company managed to have a decent year and decides to give bonuses to its employees. Wow, that extra $1,500 will go a long way. Oh wait, Mr. Dodd and company screwed up, so instead of $1500, you get a measley $150. Thanks government. That’ll cover 1 credit card payment this month.
I’m not for big government, and I’m not for little government. And I’m not for government who decides to change the rules on command because they don’t like something. They knew these bonuses were going to happen when they took up the charge of the bailout program, yet refused to do anything about it. You can’t make up the rules as you go along. That’s like pulling a guy over who was going 55 in a 55 zone, but you decided it was now a 35 zone, so he’s now under arrest. I don’t like these implications, and if you have any sense about you, you wouldn’t either. Sure, I’m not thrilled these guys are getting bonuses either, but maybe I wasn’t smart enough to force one under my employment contract.
