Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement regarding today’s vote to reclaim bonuses received by AIG employees. The legislation imposes a retroactive 90% tax for bonuses received after December 31, 2008, by an employee of any company that has received in excess of $5 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Language protecting these bonuses in the so-called stimulus package was written entirely by Democrats and signed by President Obama.

“This bill is nothing more than a bailout for congressional Democrats and the Obama Administration,” said Congressman Price. “Democrats are covering up the blunders they made by recklessly handing out taxpayer money in the first place. The American people are understandably upset that they have been put in this position, but the remedy presented raises a host of new problems.

“Democrats have put us at the top of a very slippery slope. Their attempt to regulate the pay of private citizens for political reasons is a very dangerous maneuver. And it’s no surprise that their response comes in the form of more taxes.

“We should not be in this situation in the first place. The government has no business interfering in the private sector. The false outrage expressed by the President and his allies after their actions created this problem does nothing to tackle the larger problem of irresponsible bailouts. Instead of retroactively targeting small groups of irresponsible actors with false outrage and dubious legislation, we must get the government out of private business and restore a culture of responsibility in Washington .”