I agree, the govt should not decide what you and I make. But AIG is a BIG exception, because the govt. now owns 85% of AIG. It is a nationalized company, paid for with your and my taxes. That's the difference. The govt. should set the rates at a company paid for by the taxpayers.
Two points: ex post facto laws and bills of attainder, both are specifically unconstitutional. One or the other would have to be used to get this money back. The company was not owned by the government when the contracts were negotiated. The enabling legislation appears to have specifically allowed all existing contracts to be honored, and the company has met their contractual obligations. Now the Gov't is threatening these Citizens that if they don't "voluntarily" give the money back they will change the laws and make it illegal for AIG to have given bonuses. That is an ex post facto law, it is expressly forbidden, and for good reason. When one enters into a legal contract it is binding, if the Gov't wishes to change law they can only do so going forward, not punish people for doing what was legal when they did it.
Today I hear something even more insidious, a Gov't official claiming they will go in and change the tax laws to get that money back by taxing it 100%. That is a bill of attainder, passing a law that only applies to specific people. Unless they are saying that all bonuses paid in the first quarter of 2009 are to be taxed at 100% it is unconstitutional as an illegal bill of attainder, (if it is everyones bonus then it is still ex post facto, still unconstitutional).
As mentioned above I don't know all of the details as to what these people did to "earn" a bonus, but they appear to have met some performance standard that entitled them to extra pay. The company that contracted with them for this pay has paid them. Perhaps that is stupid, perhaps it is very stupid, but it isn't unconstitutional, it doesn't undermine sacred principles of law and centuries of practice. We are watching our government threaten private citizens with unconstitutional measures and are not reacting with outrage.
Now that the US Government is the majority stock holder they have the power to insist on a management team that will not pay bonuses, that is now their prerogative; but what they are threatening is all wrong, unconstitutional and hypocritical. The current situation is nearly unimaginable; that democratically elected officials would threaten to destroy the rule of law over a few million dollars when they have just squandered billions!
I apologize in advance for my emotional tone, this is very unsettling to me.