This is an older post from “Like I was Sayin”, but with the pay czar becoming active, it seemed timely again.

Not long ago in a speech, the president said that executives that receive bonuses in this economy is in bad taste and as president, he won’t stand for it.  Now, it seems reasonable to agree that executives and employees that work for companies that would have gone out of business except for large cash infusions from the tax payers should not receive bonuses.  However, back when I saw this I noticed that between the lines Obama wasn’t attacking those companies, but all companies.

Today I was reading an article that indicated that Obama was going to introduce a new plan that would call for increased oversight of executive pay at all financial companies and not just those that received taxpayer help.

The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies as part of a plan to overhaul financial regulation, the New York Times reported.

The story mentions that the administration is currently debating how broadly they can regulate the pay of private companies.  Another worrisome fact is that they will not achieve this through legislation, but rather through regulation.

“The changes could go into effect through regulations, not legislation, depending on the result of discussions on the issue.”

The article goes on to report more troubling information:

“The regulations would reportedly cover all financial establishments, not just those receiving federal bailout aid and would likely work to ensure executive pay was in line with the financial interest of the company.”

So now, the administration that is running trillion dollar deficits, is filled with people that can’t figure out their tax forms, and is still “working” on a plan to rescue banks is going to be deciding how to best pay executives as private companies to ensure the companies are well run.

Regan said it best when he said something along the lines of “government isn’t the solution to our problems, it is the problem”.  Now they are finding new and creative ways to be a bigger problem.  Our income tax system started as a way to limit the wealth of a few extremely wealthy individuals and then trickled down to the rest of us to the point that the government believes that it can take over 1/3 of our incomes.  I imagine that it will only be a few more years when depending upon what you do for a living, anything over what the government thinks is good for the company will be taxed at 90% or more.

Krugman Blames Conservatives for Murders - Paul Krugman explains why conservatives are responsible for several recent murders.  He doesn’t seem to blame himself of the left for other recent events, but then again, he often refuses to make any sense.

Reading Rights to Terrorists?- I was shocked to see earlier this week that a congressman visiting Afghanistan witnessed captured terrorists being read their Miranda rights.  This seems to be a return to the days of treating terrorists and foreign fighters as criminals rather than military targets.  An argument could also be made that since they don’t wear uniforms or fight under a flag, they are spies.  Don’t we shoot spies?

IRS Considers Taxing Your Cell Phone- Many employees have employer provide cell phones.  The IRS would like to consider 25% of your cell phone a benefit similar to income for tax purposes.  This would mean that if your company pays $40 per month for your cell phone, the IRS believes that you just made $10 in income.

Stimulus Fails to Slow Unemployment - We were told that we had to have a stimulus “NOW” or risk economic ruin.  President Obama indicated that without the stimulus, unemployment could soar over 8%.  Well we have the stimulus and we have unemployment over 9%.

White House Appoints Pay Czar- The administration believes that everyone should be equal.  However, they don’t necessarily believe in rising people up, but rather taking aim at people at the top.  We are now seeing the first steps toward government mandated pay scales for everyone.