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View Full Version : Wall Street Set For Constitutional Showdown Over Bank Tax




Matt Collins
01-18-2010, 04:15 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-set-for-constitutional-showdown-over-bank-tax-2010-1

jmdrake
01-18-2010, 04:23 PM
This is interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/business/18bank.html
Administration officials hoped their proposed bank tax would serve much the same purpose. Democratic leaders in Congress have welcomed the plan, which could raise up to $117 billion to recoup projected losses from the bank bailout program.

Republicans have remained unusually silent on the tax, hoping to avoid a choice between supporting a tax increase and defending big bankers. Meanwhile, some liberal Democrats have gone further than the administration has, proposing a heavy tax on bank bonuses. Political analysts expect the bank tax to pass easily in the House but face resistance in the Senate.

There may be room for compromise. Administration officials hope to keep the proposed tax limited to major financial institutions with more than $50 billion in assets but consider that a difficult line to draw. For example, the proposed tax would not apply to large hedge funds; the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; or the carmakers Chrysler and General Motors.

So let's see. Poorly run businesses like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Chrysler and GM cause a crises and the government bails them out because supposedly they are "too big to fail", the people are mad because the top execs of companies that got bailed out still get bonuses, and instead of announcing a moratorium on bailouts the government taxes the big banks including banks that didn't get bailed out and then exempts the very miscreants that caused the problem in the first place? Oh the hubris!