Sherrod Brown's Evil Tax Bill

Cross-posted from dumpsherrodbrown.com:

Looney left Sherrod Brown is at it again. After the Democrats created massive opportunities for abuse of federal dollars, in part by bailing out AIG and others, Sherrod Brown wants to punish the giving of bonuses by bailed out institution, to the tune of a 56% tax rate. So he introduced a bill to tax after-the-fact bonuses given by AIG and other bailed out companies.

We all hate greed with federal dollars. The real solution is to be stingier with those dollars in the first place. Cut federal pork. The porkulus and other massive spending bills make waste and abuse inevitable.

It is horrible tax policy to pass a punitive tax after-the-fact on money previously paid. Tax policy should never be used for punitive purposes. Of course, horrible policy is Sherrod's middle name.

If the bill passes, you can be quite sure that innocent will be punished with the guilty.

If there is a problem (and it does sound pretty bad), ex post facto tax policy is a truly evil way of dealing with it.

Update: Full disclosure. I did not receive any bail out money. I did not receive any bonuses from TARP money. 'Nuff said.