My wife and the sales team she runs was responsible for $418 Million in sales last year - her bonus was $189,000 - 0.0004125% of what she was responsible for earning for her company and the sharholders, with 70 hour weeks and 60% travel - Gee, is that "unreasonable or excessive" Mr. Obama, you decide.
http://nymike.blogtownhall.com

The first thing that came to me was "This isn't better -- it's worse!"

If it's an across the board tax, it's stupidly high but hit all of them. If it's at politicians' discretion on an individual basis, this is an ABSOLUTE PRESCRIPTION for corruption.

"Hey man, contribute enough to my campaign and I'll say your bonus was 'fair'. Don't, and I'll just tax it all away from you...."

Kind of interesting how they have decided to implement a "milder version" to be decided by Frank and Dodd just in time for Fannie & Freddie to pay their scheduled bonuses!

So, what we found from the only exec to step forward.

1. He didn't work at the section that destroyed AIG. He was profitable

2. He didn't insure trash mortgages. It wasn't his section. He made money.

3. It was his bosses that begged for public bailout money. Not him.

4. His bonus was contractual from before the bailout, and was given to him by his superiors, who did beg for bailouts.

We need to pity the morons who speculate about these people and their motivations, guilt etc.

My mother lost a lot of her retirement with this downturn as did my in-laws. My wife and I lost a lot with this downturn. And strangely enough, so did many rich people.

I do pity the rich, because while I am now a government employee, I STILL work for rich people.

Neal this has already been proposed by Frank and others..

It seems with the current political circus in washington it has a good chance of passing as well.

Meanwhile people applaud and say "YEA! get those dirty CEOs!"

you know if you keep supporting the govt as it strips the rights of others away.. who is going to defend you when the govt comes to strip yours as well?

some of these people that are still irrationally raging against AIG need to keep something in mind.. the govt should have never given these companies bailouts to begin with. Would you still have your panties in a bunch if bonuses were paid to employees of the business if it had not received the bailout funds?

Where in the constitution does it grant the federal govt the power to just pick winners and losers in the market with bailouts? and even if this can be validated LEGALLY.. why is it ETHICALLY acceptable?

If your company cant stay afloat it should sink like every other boat.. just because its a cruise liner doesn't make it more important than the shrimp boat.

So the guys who

1. Destroyed their own companies,
2. Trashed our economy,
3. Begged for public bailout mony, and
4. Proceeded to give themselves huge bonuses and luxury-jet perks...

We need to PITY them and PROTECT them from the bad ol' government? LOL!

Great stuff, Neal! Very funny act you've got. I'll bet some of your loyal listeners are actually dumb enough to agree with this, too.

Those poor, poor abused rich people... having to pay for their incompetence and corruption and destruction of our economic system. It's not FAIR! (pout, sulk, whine)

It seems that anyone who gets a big bonus check these days is subject to government scrutiny and persecution. Isn't winning the lottery a kind of bonus check? I think there should be a law (retroactive to Jan 2007) to collect a 90% redistribution tax on all lottery winners.