OUTRAGEOUS!

This Post continued from here and here.

Here is how our system is supposed to work.

Congress bails out AIG. The guvmint takes an ownership interest in AIG and appoints representatives from the Treasury or the Federal Reserve to advise and consent to AIG's ongoing operations. AIG proposes a schedule of retention bonuses, arguing that it needs these people to effectively wind down the derivative operations that caused the bailout in the first place. Guvmint reps approve the retention bonuses, and consistent with that, make sure that these bonuses are excluded from restrictions in the Stimulus Bill of 2009. Bonuses are then paid, and all political hell breaks loose.

Guvmint realizes that it screwed up, and begins a campaign of vilification to distract the voters from its own perfidy. This campaign fails. Guvmint then apologizes to the American people, pleads the incredible stress involved in working diligently on behalf of the people to solve all the important problems on heaven and earth, and with great fanfare passes laws to make sure that this will never, ever, ever happen again. Flash bulbs popping, people cheering, politicians shaking hands all around. End of news cycle, on to the next.

What is not supposed to happen in our system is for the government to gin up the mob, and pass a bill of attainder against citizens to recoup lawful, legal bonus payments. A restriction against bills of attainder is one of the fundamental Constitutional rights citizens have in our Republic, and for a reason: Governments that can pass laws against specific identifiable people as opposed to laws of general application are governments under which there is no longer any objective rule of law or meaningful property rights, nor is there freedom to contract, express opinions, associate for religious or political purposes, or any number of other freedoms that Americans have treasured these many years.

And this is especially true when government targets citizens about matters that occur prior to the passage of the law. This is known as an ex post facto law and it is explicitly prohibited in Article One of the Constitution. Particularly heinous in criminal law, ex post facto laws are no less so in the civil area, as the bailout/bonus tax legislation makes clear.

Is what the House did unconstitutional? If it ain't, it oughta be. And without intending hyperbole at all, I say that any Representative who voted in favor of this reprehensible tax on our fellow citizens, be (s)he Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, Dependent, Pendent, or Pedant, be summarily thrown out of office at the next most convenient election.

Via email.