When a no-tax pledge isn't a no-tax pledge

SPRINGFIELD - Suburban members of Congress who voted this week to raise taxes on big bonus recipients at AIG say their votes in favor of that hike do not violate their pledges to never raise taxes.

Republican U.S. Reps. Peter Roskam of Wheaton, Mark Kirk of Highland Park, Judy Biggert of Hinsdale, and Don Manzullo of the Rockford area all voted to approve a 90 percent tax rate on bonuses paid to employees of certain companies receiving federal bailout money, including insurance giant AIG.

The lawmakers promised not to vote in favor of raising taxes when they signed the Americans for Tax Reform Taxpayer Protection Pledge vowing to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses."

Spokesmen for these members of Congress said Friday the vote to raise taxes on the bonuses shouldn't count.

And the taxpayer group behind the pledge, while opposing the tax hike on bonuses, indicated it did not consider such votes a violation of the signed pledge.

"This was the only way to recoup the taxpayers' money and not have taxpayers' money be given out to companies to reward failure," said Roskam spokesman Matt Vriesema. "His first and foremost priority is to protect the taxpayer, and in this case the taxpayer was paying these bonuses."

Rep. Kirk agreed. "I voted to recoup $165 million in taxpayer funds improperly paid by AIG to people who caused this crisis. In the long run, taxes will be kept lower if we limit bailouts and end bonus payments to these institutions," Kirk said.

Manzullo said he didn't violate the pledge because of the unprecedented economic entanglement between the government and the bailed-out companies.

"The federal government owns about 80 percent of AIG. They should be bound by the same constraints as other federal agencies until such time as they have paid back their 'loan' to the federal government," said Manzullo spokesman Rich Carter.

A spokesman for Biggert echoed the idea that the vote was only getting taxpayers their money back.

"She's not increasing taxes, she's reclaiming money that belongs to the taxpayer," said press secretary Zachary Cikanek. "If Treasury has a better way to get that money back, fine. But the bottom line is that money belongs to the taxpayers and we want it back."

Before the vote was taken, however, Biggert earlier Thursday seemed strongly opposed to the very existence of the bonus tax hike measure: "And now Congress is making the same bad mistake by passing another piece of rush legislation, introduced in one day, hasn't been considered in committee, and hasn't had the proper scrutiny. This is not how the American people want to see Congress acting," Biggert said in a written statement. The House approved the tax hike, 328-93.

Democratic suburban Reps. Bill Foster of Geneva, and Jan Schakowsky of Evanston, also voted for the tax increase, while Rep. Melissa Bean of Barrington, voted no. However, none of the Democrats signed the "no taxes" pledge.

While Americans for Tax Reform strongly urged members of Congress on Thursday to vote against the bonus tax hike, the interest group said Friday they wouldn't consider a vote for the bonus tax as a violation of their pledges.

"This legislation is not a tax bill so much as it is a politically-driven police action by Congress. The pledge is intended as a serious commitment by serious defenders of taxpayers," said Ryan Ellis, director of tax policy, in a written statement. "In order to protect the integrity of the pledge and faithful pledge-takers, ATR will not allow the pledge to be controlled by this illegal political cover-up."

The bonus tax legislation now moves to the U.S. Senate where its progress has been slowed by constitutional questions concerning whether retroactive tax hikes on a specific group of people are permissible.