As I have said here before, I am a senior technical executive at a large bank.
As it happens, a bank that was forced at gunpoint, by the secretary of the treasury and chairman of the federal reserve, to accept TARP funds (as all the top surviving banks in the U.S were).
Let me be clear. We did not want TARP funds, or need them; but were told in no uncertain terms that we WOULD take them.
As obscene as that is, it is irrelevant to what follows; excepting that we did take TARP funds.
The United States House of Representatives recently passed a blatantly unconstitutional bill, placing confiscatory tax burdens on anyone making more than $250,000 and working for an institution that received more than 5 billion of TARP funds.
The bill was in theory specifically addressed at the false outrage over retention bonuses paid to AIG executives; and is targeted only to their bonuses.
In theory.
Of course, this would be an unconstitutional bill of attainder, which wouldn't pass even the most cursory constitutional challenge; so it was re-written to be broader.
Broader of course means more people would be affected, and congress would be given more power to steal more money.
In fact, if you read into the implications of the bill; it could be used to levy a 90% tax on any income over $250,000, earned by any family making more than $250,000 per year, where either spouse is employed by an institution that received federal "bailout" funds.
It appears that the Senate, and the Obama administration are cold on the bill and that it will not pass, or be signed into law if it did.
I do not earn that much money; nor do my wife and I earn that much together (though in the next few years it is entirely possible that we will).
However, I have something important to say.
If congress should pass any such bill, and the president sign any such law, I WILL NOT OBEY IT.
I will not allow congress to tell me how much I can earn. I will not allow them to take my income because of the actions of others. If they attempt to make me do so by force, I will resist with force.
I will most likely die in the process, which I regret; but at some point a line must be drawn. The constitution must be respected, or it is meaningless.
Congress can make no law that is unconstitutional on it's face. If such a law be passed, it is the duty of the president to repudiate it; and it must not be signed. If such a law is signed, it is the duty of the agents of the government to refuse to enforce it. If the agents of the state attempt to enforce it, then they must be resisted with force, at all costs.
Anything less is submission to tyranny, and the diminution of citizens, to subjects; or worse.
I have made clear in the past that I would resist police abuse of the constitution. I will resist congresses abuses no less. I will resist the presidents abuses no less.
Agents of the state cannot exceed the legitimate authority of the state. When they do so, they are criminals, and they must be resisted as criminals.
Normally I do not advertise where my lines are; but congress is now in the midst of a tantrum of self indulgence, overconfidence, and hubris not seen since reconstruction.
Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama, are pushing our nation headlong into tyranny and ruin; and decrying those who resist as racists, or reactionaries; simply for not wanting to be serfs.
I would suggest that we petition for the impeachment and prosecution (for conspiracy to deprive every resident of the united states of their civil rights) of any congressman who voted for such a bill; but I know it would do no good.
Government must be made to understand, WE WILL NOT TOLERATE SUCH ABUSE.
We will resist.
We will revolt.
We will not be made subjects, serfs, or slaves.