Utahns split on 90% tax on AIG bonuses

Utah's House members were split Thursday about whether a bill to slap a 90 percent tax on bailout-funded bonuses to AIG executives was just retribution or an unconstitutional political ploy by Democrats to cover their mistakes that allowed the bonuses.

The House passed the bill on a wide 328-93 vote. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, voted for it, while Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, opposed it.

"I share the anger and sense of betrayal that most Utahns feel when they hear about these bonuses," Matheson said. "Hard-working Utahns who played by the rules feel robbed twice by these financial scammers who gambled away our prosperity and then shamelessly accepted a bonus.

"Congress made a mistake (allowing those bonuses) and needs to fix it by getting the taxpayers' money back. That's what we've done with this bill today," he said.

Chaffetz said Democrats "made these bonus payments possible" and now are "trying to cover their tracks and sweep their mistakes under the rug."

"There is no need to manipulate the tax code to correct this problem," he said. "A better solution would be to demand that the Treasury withhold future taxpayer funds until AIG bonuses are repaid."

Bishop called the action "outrageous." Democrats quietly altered language of the bailout bill to allow such bonuses at the behest of the Obama administration, he said, and the new bill "is blatantly unconstitutional."

"If we do this to these jerk executives — who perhaps deserve it — what is the next group to gain the wrath of Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi, and will we attack them with a retroactive, punitive tax as well? This action, like so much of this session, is simply a violation of the rule of law, and it is wrong," Bishop said.

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