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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs
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To: TimF who wrote (34368)3/25/2009 12:15:00 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof  Read Replies (1) of 71588
 
"A bill of attainder can be against a defined class or group, not just named individuals."

But it's essence is extreme narrowness, extreme targeting... punishment without trial.

en.wikipedia.org

And, a bill as broad-based as what I described would face no Constitutional problems of this sort at all:

I don't believe that there would be *any* Constitutional problem AT ALL to put --- say --- a windfall profits tax on all bonus payments over $100,000 at ANY and ALL institutions which are in receipt of $5 Billion or more in taxpayer-paid bail out funding.

Such a bill would actually be rather broad (hitting several I-Banks, Commercial Banks, Auto companies, Insurance companies, Mortgage companies... and the list grows day-by-day almost as we bail-out more...)

No "bill of attainder" at all!

(And... if levied from say Jan 1 rolling forward... not ex post facto either.)

However, although I see no LEGAL problems with such a tax, I do see many POLITICAL PROBLEMS (as the bailed-out firms are already working their lobbyists overtime and Congress is ALREADY growing spineless again.)

No doubt the Congress knows full well where their campaign funding comes from (& it ain't from the 'little guy'! :-)

The Senate has ALREADY gone from "we will consider it this week" to "gee... we are really busy over here... maybe we can look at it at the end of NEXT MONTH".

And, I predict that from there they will soon move on to "maybe before Summer is over..." and then to "gee but this Fall is already jam-packed".
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