Tuesday, March 24, 2009

An Offer They Can't Refuse   [Mark Hemingway]

Bloomberg:

Congress may not need to impose a heavy tax on bonuses paid by American International Group Inc. if employees continue to return the payments, a House leader said after the Senate slowed consideration of its proposal.

“If we see the return of the payments, there won’t be anything to tax,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters today in Washington. Legislation “may not be necessary.”

Ah, such brilliant logic at play here — extortion is always a bit more elegant than theft. Hoyer might as well be saying that if they voluntarily pay the protection money, Congress won't have to take a baseball bat to the store and take it for themselves.

03/24 03:15 PMShare