Beyond AIG: A bill to let Big Government set your salary
It was nearly two weeks ago that the House of Representatives, acting in a near-frenzy after the disclosure of bonuses paid to executives of AIG, passed a bill that would impose a 90 percent retroactive tax on those bonuses. Despite the overwhelming 328-93 vote, support for the measure began to collapse almost immediately. Within days, the Obama White House backed away from it, as did the Senate Democratic leadership. The bill stalled, and the populist storm that spawned it seemed to pass.
But now, in a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the “Pay for Performance Act of 2009,” would impose government controls on the pay of all employees — not just top executives — of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.
OK. So let’s see if I get this: After EVEN the Administration and the Senate gave up on the “Let’s pass a bill of attainder against those dastardly AIG zeks.” effort, they turn around and come back with a new attempt to be an even greater power grab. This one grants Treasury Secretary Kommissar Geithner authority to arbitrarily set the wage levels on ANYONE employed by any firm taking government money from the series of porkulus bills. How long before it applies to any federal contractor, vendor, etc? [Not long at all, methinks.]
Why should/would they stop there? What about schools (at all levels) who get federal money? What about state governments? One might guess what their intention is there, as indicated by abortive moves to FORCE states to accept federal money, along with the accompanying mandates, regulations, and (forced) future growth at STATE, not federal, expense.
At this rate it’s not far-fetched at all for a COMECON or something like Wilson’s WW-I era “War Industries Board”, and it’s twin “War Labor Board” to swoop in, and take control in order to save us from ourselves. Hmmm. On further thought, this has already been thoroughly described. For the gory details refer to the “Equalization Boards” as described in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.
Who is John Galt, anyway?