Lucas Statement on AIG Vote

Washington, DC – Today, the House of Representatives voted on H.R. 1586, which would impose 90 percent tax on bonuses given to employees of certain TARP recipients.  The measure passed the House by a vote of 328-93.  Lucas voted against the bill.

“I have consistently voted against these taxpayer funded bailouts of private companies who made poor decisions.  After receiving more than $125 billion from the federal government, it is unconscionable for AIG to pay $165 million in bonuses to executives who have clearly failed at their job as AIG continues to sink further into debt.  Even more troubling is the fact that President Obama and Secretary Geithner knew of these bonuses and continued to push for additional bailouts for AIG.

“The American people have every right to be outraged at these recent events, and I join them in their outrage.  However, levying a 90 percent tax on specified employees is not the way to correct these problems.  Instead it is yet another bailout- a political bailout for Speaker Pelosi and the majority party for their poor decisions to push massive federal spending plans through Congress without giving members time to read the legislation. 

“In addition to setting bad precedence regarding tax policies in this country, this bill clearly violates the U.S. Constitution by targeting a specific group of people and punishing them.  The American people deserve to get 100 percent of their money back- not 90 percent in the form of a massive, and potentially unconstitutional, tax.”

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