Reply #15: I think it is an itneresting argument

[Perky]

The founders did not specify a distinction between civil and criminal and the a 90% tax on something like a contractual bonus which popular opinion say you should not get (without a finding of fact) is penalizing some one who may or may not have done anything wrong. It is certain unusual and certainly capricious and probably cruel in the absence of either preexisting law or a finding of fact

Let me ask another way. Are they being taxed because AIG failed in it fiuciary obligations when this whole mess started to percolate? Are they being penalized because AIGm chose to honor its contractual obligations to its employees? Ar they being penalized because the bonuses came from bailout dollars? Seems to me that the penalty out to accrueto AIG and not the employee.