Finance Chairman Sen. Max Baucus and Republican Sen. Charles Grassley have launched an initiative Tuesday which plans to impose steep taxes on company bonuses, much like those recently paid out by AIG. The bill will prevent companies which receive government bailout money from distributing it unfairly to executives, rather than the purpose for which it was intended.

The two senators, top Democratic and Republican members of the committee respectively, plan for the bill to impose a 35 percent excise tax on the companies paying the bonuses and a 35 percent excise tax on the employees receiving them, they say. The move would include all companies receiving any form of government bailout money, but analysts say that AIG is evidently the main target.

There is speculation about whether the bill will be retroactive, fixing the debacle with AIG last week.

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