March 21 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will weigh the impact on credit flows before deciding whether to support a measure to impose new taxes on employee bonuses at companies that receive taxpayer aid, according to his spokesman.

Obama will balance assuaging “taxpayer anger and frustration” over the bonus payments at American International Group Inc. and other companies with the need to “stabilize the financial system and ensure that credit flows from banks and lending institutions,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters at a briefing yesterday.

The financial-services industry is warning that the move to impose a steep tax on bonuses at companies that receive taxpayer aid may cause some banks to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program before their competitors are healthy enough to do so, risking a new freeze of the nation’s credit markets.

“This will undermine the recovery efforts,” said Scott Talbott, senior vice president for government affairs at the Financial Services Roundtable, an industry trade group in Washington. “It will decrease industry interest in participating in any recovery program and cast a pall over existing and future contracts.”

The political furor in Congress peaked on March 19 when the House voted 328-93 to impose a 90 percent tax on employee bonuses paid by companies such as AIG, Citigroup Inc. and JP Morgan that received more than $5 billion in taxpayer assistance.

Senate Measure

Two hours later, four senators proposed legislation to impose a 70 percent tax split between the company and employee on any bonus paid by any corporation that accepted more than $100 million in TARP assistance.

Obama, in a statement after the House vote, said the measure “rightly reflects the outrage” over disclosure of bonuses at companies like AIG, which paid $165 million in bonuses after receiving a total of $173 billion in federal bailout funds. Obama said he looks forward to getting final legislation.

Gibbs yesterday stopped short of saying Obama would sign the House bill.

“That’s the evaluation that is being undertaken here,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scheduled debate on an unrelated bill for next week after failing to win agreement to vote on the Senate bonus tax bill late March 19. That will give the administration time to try to shape the legislation.

‘Serious Problem’

“That is a serious problem” for Obama, said George Clarke, a member of the white collar and internal investigations practice at the Miller & Chevalier law firm in Washington. “He had better start toning the rhetoric down on how bad these guys are if he wants to keep them ‘on the team.’”

The Senate delay will also give the industry more time to mount a defense.

Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit met March 19 with Reid. The senator’s spokesman, Jim Manley, said the meeting was scheduled weeks ago to discuss Citigroup’s condition and the overall economy.

The bonus legislation “might have come up” in the meeting with Pandit, Manley said. “But I don’t think it’s fair to say he lobbied Senator Reid.” Shortly after the meeting, Reid tried in vain to bring the Senate measure up for a floor vote.

Manley said Reid has been fielding calls “from people on both sides of the issue.”

Talks With Durbin

The bonus measure also came up among other topics in a meeting between Pandit and the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat Richard Durbin, said Max Gleischman, a spokesman for the Illinois senator.

Pandit told Citigroup workers in a memo yesterday that the bank is “working in every appropriate way with policymakers.”

Separately, Jes Staley, CEO of JPMorgan’s asset-management unit, told his workers in an e-mail that the bank, including its government relations department, is “working hard on all of the challenges we are currently facing.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan J. Donmoyer in Washington at rdonmoyer@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 21, 2009 00:01 EDT