Cooler heads seem to be taking over the debate over how taxpayers can recoup the large bonuses paid to executives at bail-out insurer AIG.
The senate is delaying taking up a house-passed bill that would levy a 90% tax on bonuses paid to employees of bailed-out financial firms. The slow-down comes after President Obama on Sunday told CBS news programme "60 Minutes" that "as a general proposition, you don't want to be passing laws that are just targeting a handful of individuals... And as a general proposition, I think you certainly don't want to use the tax code--is to punish people".
Last week congressmen of both parties lined up to lash AIG chief Edward Liddy, although the contracts awarding the $165m in bonuses were signed before he joined the company at the government's behest after the September takeover.
The following day the house of representatives passed legislation to tax at 90%. (George Will this morning described the proceedings as "the braying of 328 yahoos").
Meanwhile, it's worth pointing out that our constitution prohibits the congress from passing bills of attainder, which are legislative acts singling out a person or class of persons for punishment. In Britain, they had been used to confiscate property or revoke titles of nobility from opponents of the monarchy, and the American founding fathers deemed them a legislative exercise of judicial power, or trial by legislature.
