The Guardian’s Ewen MacAskill reported earlier today that Congress isn’t waiting around for the impotent Obama Administration to take action on the AIG bonus scandal:
In the face of public outrage at bonuses paid last week to executives of the bailed-out insurance giant AIG, the House of Representatives passed an emergency measure to impose 90% tax on the cash handouts, which total around $165m (£114m). It passed by 328 votes to 93.
MacAskill continues:
Congress is pointing the finger of blame at the White House for failing to take measures to prevent huge bonuses being paid to executives of institutions being bailed out.
Obama, who was on the second day of a visit to California, has seen the AIG row wreck his carefully-laid plans to spend the week selling his $3.6tn budget plans to help lift the economy out of recession and promote alternative energy plans. He has also been forced to come to the defence of his treasury secretary Tim Geithner, whose credibility has been challenged because of suggestions that he did little to prevent the bonuses being paid.
Although several leading Republicans have urged the Administration to fire Geithner, MacAskill notes:
While Obama is unlikely to sack Geithner only a few months into his presidency, the scandal has weakened the treasury secretary and threatens to make it harder for the Obama administration to push through ambitious plans for helping lift the US - and world - out of recession.
The House of Representatives has had enough:
Today the House of Representatives passed a bill drawn up on Tuesday after congressional offices were flooded with calls from constituents expressing disgust with the bonuses. Democratic members stood up in the house one after another to express anger over the bonuses paid out to what one called the "barons of Wall Street" at a time when millions were struggling with unemployment.
MacAskill reports that the Senate will vote on a similar bill next week.
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