Last week the House of Representatives in Washington passed a Bill taxing at about 90% the bonuses received by employees of firms given $5 Billion or more in taxpayer support. Here’s a Washington Post story explaining the Bill. The background is the outrage American voters and politicians felt at the bonuses paid to staff at AIG, rescued by the government last year, but the Bill goes much further. It now passes to the Senate, but Senators are working on their own Bills, which could be even tougher.
What interests me about this is how similar the Bill is to my own modest proposal for how Harriet Harman and the government here could grab Sir Fred Goodwin’s and other pensions – I even suggested 90% as the possible rate of grab, at least for the fattest tax-fed cats. I’m impressed that Congress is willing to back its words with deeds – and very disappointed that Gordon Brown’s government are sitting on their hands.
My proposal has been criticised (wrongly in my view) as being in breach of Convention rights; similarly, the American proposals are, some say, in breach of the US Constitution. So I’m also interested that according to the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog, Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law School dismisses those complaints as lacking substance.
I think the Americans are showing us the way here, and that the human rights concerns people raise here are no more substantial than the constitutional objections raised there. The government should stop dithering and introduce a suitable Bill now.
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