I like the idea, but I’m personally not a fan of collective punishment. I’d make sure that 1 million dollar cut came straight out of the DOJ top brass salaries, the ones who are responsible for not complying with the subpoena.
UPDATE: Looks like it does, indeed, only come out of those pockets. Bravo.
We need to see more of this as Congress really needs to take its roll of keeping the executive in line seriously.
Shot across the bow of the bureaucracies.
Unfortunately, I doubt Holder derives much of his income from his DoJ salary, but I applaud the action nonetheless.
Why would we pay somebody refusing to comply with a subpena anything? Why aren’t they terminated for cause?
Because, for various hysterical raisins, the executive branch is (somewhat) insulated from political meddling by elected and politically appointed officials.
Congress can impeach them, but they have to go through the whole show.
Finding DOJ a million dollars is like fining me 2 dollars.
http://www.justice.gov/jmd/2012summary/
The 2012 budget for DOJ was $28.2 billion for 114,903 positions ($240k per person on average).