The administration proposes to impose a punitive ex-post-facto tax "Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee" on banks who received TARP bailouts--regardless of whether they wanted, needed, or have repaid the funds. Wall St. Weighs a Challenge to a Proposed Tax, New York Times at B1 (Jan. 17, 2010). Of course, bailout recipients with sufficient links to the Democratic Party, such as the union-owned automakers and retired-politico-operated Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are exempt.
But haven't we been told that the financial crisis was caused by all those irresponsible sub-prime mortgages? So, surely, sub-prime borrowers should not escape their share of the blame. So let's make them pay another percent or two of interest on their mortgages, regardless on whether they are current on their mortgages, have repaid them, or discharged them in bankruptcy. That is not the deal they signed up for? Well, no, but then neither is it the one the TARP recipients signed up for.
