Congressman Buck McKeon was one of only 93 House members to vote No on HR 1586, which would have imposed an additional tax on bonus recipients who worked at companies that received TARP money.
The other half of the GOP Caucus voted yes on the bill, including House Minority Whip Eric Cantor. House Minority Leader John Boehner, however, voted no on it. Democrats voted 243 to 7 to impose the tax. According to the NY TImes:
WASHINGTON — Spurred on by a tidal wave of public anger over bonuses paid to executives of the foundering American International Group, the House voted 328 to 93 on Thursday to get back most of the money by levying a 90 percent tax on it.
The measure easily surpassed a procedural hurdle requiring a two-thirds majority vote, thanks to considerable Republican support. The Senate will consider a roughly similar measure, perhaps next week. If something is approved in that chamber the House and Senate versions would have to be reconciled, so prospects for final passage of a bill are unclear.
But there was no doubt after the House vote that the lawmakers were keenly aware of their constituents’ anger, which was focused on A.I.G., although the House measure would apply to executives of any company getting more than $5 billion in federal bailout money.
I guess 25th District Constituents weren’t angry enough about AIG’s Financial Products division getting those $165 million in bonuses for McKeon to notice!
Even anti-tax fetishists like Tom McClintock voted yes on the bill. McKeon’s neighbors in California -Elton Gallegly and Jerry Lewis- also voted yes.
I have to give McKeon some credit, however: when he says he hates taxes, he really means it, even if it applies to the millionaire fatcats who took down the global economy!
UPDATE:
McKeon has a statement on his website now expressing how angry he is about the AIG bonuses but doesn’t say why he voted against taxing their bonuses:
“I am outraged by reports that AIG has paid million dollar bonuses to company executives – this is after receiving billions in taxpayer assistance,” said McKeon. My constituents - and Americans across the country - are irate by AIG’s arrogance. Enough is enough,” he continued. “Americans deserve to have every penny of that money returned to them. And it’s time Democrats started answering some serious questions: When did Secretary Geithner know about the bonuses? When was President Obama informed about the bonuses? We need answers from Senator Chris Dodd and other Democrats about their knowledge of these bonuses and why a provision was included in the stimulus package that allowed this to happen to taxpayer money. We need answers now.”
Posted March 19. This has been going on all week long- he’s only now getting outraged?
Anyway, there’s more to the statement. You can read it all here.