Could the Dems AIG-Inspired Tax Bill Exempt Citigroup — And Other Bailed-Out Banks?
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, just pointed out the potential for loopholes to be opened in the AIG-inspired bonus taxation bill that his party is about to push to passage today. Sherman, who warned TPMDC early on that executive-pay limits in the stimulus bill would be watered down, called today’s bonus taxation bill “a step in the right direction” — but noted that it would allow companies to still pay lavish bonuses while merely changing the terminology used to describe them. But the most nagging question Sherman raised in his statement this afternoon relates to language in the Democratic bill that limits any bonus taxation to firms getting “capital infusions under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.” Sherman interprets this language as applying to the preferred-stock purchases that were authorized under that law, which provided the first round of bailout funds nearly six months ago. So would today’s AIG-inspired bil
