On Record As Stupid

The House is voting right now on the bill to tax bailed-out bonuses at 90%. Due to procedures (this would be a suspension of rules vote) the bill would need a two-thirds supermajority to pass, which means House Republicans do have the means to kill the bill and then stab themselves in the face as Steve Benen points out.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is drawing fire this afternoon for opposing a measure to recoup AIG bonus money, after complaining all week about how outrageous the bonuses are. House Democrats are on the offensive.

A spokesperson for GOP House leader John Boehner confirms that he will be voting No on a measure being introduced by House Dems today to slap a 90% tax on bonuses paid to AIG execs with family incomes topping $250,000 -- and a senior Democrat on the Senate side blasted him for expressing "manufactured outrage" about the AIG controversy.

Senate Dems are demanding to know whether Boehner's opposition -- which doesn't matter much on the House side because of the Dems' lopsided majority -- signals that GOP leaders will oppose the measure in the Senate, where the Dem margin is much slimmer.

"He will vote 'no' on the Democrats' bill, which will recoup some of the AIG bonus money eventually," Boehner spokesperson Michael Steel emails me. "He supports the House Republicans' better alternative, which would recoup all of the money immediately."

Right, and what's the "Republican alternative" on this? It's a non-binding resolution asking the Treasury Department to figure out a way -- the GOP's bill doesn't specify -- to recoup the money AIG paid in bonuses. Seriously, that's it. The "alternative" bill basically just passes the buck, telling Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, in effect, "We don't have a policy per se, but be a mensch and go get all the money back." That's the "better" Republican "alternative" to the Democrats' plan to recoup the money through taxes.

And if Geithner didn't figure out a way to get the money back? Nothing happens. This, Boehner believes, "would recoup all of the money immediately."

And Republicans wonder why it's so difficult to take them seriously on policy issues.

Plus there's the added bonus of Republicans going on record refusing to get bonus money back, which will pretty much end them. The Wingnuts have gone off the Galt cliff, and have pretty much turned themselves into complete fools over this issue.

On the other hand, we still have the multi-trillion dollar problem of the bailout itself, which is what both parties should be passing laws on right now rather than feigning outrage at each other. Let's recover 90% of the bailout cash.

Hopefully we can move on and get the problem taken care of (cough Timmy cough).

[UPDATE] The House indeed passed the measure 328-93, well more than the two-thirds needed. We'll see what the Senate does.