Hinchey backs windfall tax on bank CEOs' bonuses

CEOs of financial institutions should face a windfall profits tax to recoup excess profits, one Democratic lawmaker said Tuesday.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) endorsed an idea floated in recent weeks to tax large financial firms to effectively take back the windfall profits the companies have enjoyed from government support, as well as the large bonuses to top executives paid out as a result.

"There should be and there should be a further investigation into the way this whole operation occurred," Hinchey said during an appearance on MSNBC when asked about the need for the windfall tax.

Hinchey, who is one of a group of liberal lawmakers that have called for the reinstatement of a law to break up some of the largest U.S. banks, said that firms had essentially "stolen" money from the U.S. taxpayer in order to pad their profits by way of the bailouts approved last year by Congress.

"And when you put the words 'stolen' in there, I think that's absolutely right. That money was stolen because it was engaged in an operation that they knew was false, that they knew was going to get money from them and that they knew was going to take money away from a whole host of people," he said. "And we saw that occur a lot of ways, including with the mortgages that so many people have lost."

The New York Democrat called for an investigation into how the bailouts went down, as well, warning that the investigations were needed to stave off another drop in the economy.

"And that investigation is necessary to try to ensure that that same kind of circumstances don't happen again," he said. "If they do happen again, we're going to face another serious decline in this economy."

Watch the entire interview below:

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