You Decide

I am NOT in favor of awarding failing company directors with any type of bonuses whether contracturally entered into previous to decline or not.  However what's taking place is slowly putting the noose around necks of the general public regarding run away power of the government to set salaries and make those changes retroactive. Very dangerous out of control seizure of power.  We conservatives warned time and time again but it fell on deaf ears.

BTW those believing the Republican Party is dead, the Libertarian Party is poised to pick up massive voting defectors from both major parties which have failed miserably in recent years thanks to the Lamestream Media.  There's a place for small central government proponents to go and effect change ... think people are going to be shocked at defections next voting cycle.

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fascism   A political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government (as opposed to democracy or liberalism)

Bringing Todd's blog post forward .........

"$1 Trillion in new taxes on the way

A lesson in what is going on

"........ Ultimately, because it wrecks the economy, it ensures that the government will be able to take over private-sector business in order to provide "stability" (when they in fact created the instability), and then we are well down the road to socialism —perhaps so far down that road that we can't turn back.
However....

I say the word "socialism", but if you look up the word "socialism", that is really not what is being created. The real word is "fascism".

That's right, fascism.

Most people hear the word "fascism", and think it's some kind of curse word, because it has been mis-used for so long, and because Nazi Germany was considered a fascist state, the word "fascist" has become synonymous with "Nazi".

But the word "fascist" does not mean "Nazi", so put aside your pre-conceptions for a minute.

Fascism is defined as follows:

Fascists aim to create a single-party state in which the government is led by a dictator who seeks unity by requiring individuals to subordinate self-interest to the collective interest of the nation or a race.

That is exactly what is happening. A single party is seeking to dominate the landscape by creating a dependent lower-class that consists of more 50% of the population, ensuring their votes since the government in power is essential to their survival. (Or so they think.)

Every message from the party currently in power is that not paying exorbitant taxes is "selfish" — in other words, it is against "the common good".

And that, friends, is not Capitalism, it is Fascism. ........."

https://blogs.lotterypost.com/todd/2009/2/1-trillion-in-new-taxes-on-the-way.htm
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"Beyond AIG: A bill to let Big Government set your salary
By Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent 3/31/09
Source Washingtonexaminer.com

"House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., left, talks with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, right, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, on Capitol Hill Tuesday, March 24,2009.

Frank's committee has passed a bill giving Geithner extensive control over salaries of employees working at companies receiving government bailout funds. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) 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.

The purpose of the legislation is to "prohibit unreasonable and excessive compensation and compensation not based on performance standards," according to the bill's language. That includes regular pay, bonuses -- everything -- paid to employees of companies in whom the government has a capital stake, including those that have received funds through the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The measure is not limited just to those firms that received the largest sums of money, or just to the top 25 or 50 executives of those companies. It applies to all employees of all companies involved, for as long as the government is invested. And it would not only apply going forward, but also retroactively to existing contracts and pay arrangements of institutions that have already received funds.

In addition, the bill gives Geithner the authority to decide what pay is "unreasonable" or "excessive." And it directs the Treasury Department to come up with a method to evaluate "the performance of the individual executive or employee to whom the payment relates."

The bill passed the Financial Services Committee last week, 38 to 22, on a nearly party-line vote. (All Democrats voted for it, and all Republicans, with the exception of Reps. Ed Royce of California and Walter Jones of North Carolina, voted against it.)

The legislation is expected to come before the full House for a vote this week, and, just like the AIG bill, its scope and retroactivity trouble a number of Republicans. "It's just a bad reaction to what has been going on with AIG," Rep. Scott Garrett of New Jersey, a committee member, told me. Garrett is particularly concerned with the new powers that would be given to the Treasury Secretary, who just last week proposed giving the government extensive new regulatory authority. "This is a growing concern, that the powers of the Treasury in this area, along with what Geithner was looking for last week, are mind boggling," Garrett said.

Rep. Alan Grayson, the Florida Democrat who wrote the bill, told me its basic message is "you should not get rich off public money, and you should not get rich off of abject failure." Grayson expects the bill to pass the House, and as we talked, he framed the issue in a way to suggest that virtuous lawmakers will vote for it, while corrupt lawmakers will vote against it.

"This bill will show which Republicans are so much on the take from the financial services industry that they're willing to actually bless compensation that has no bearing on performance and is excessive and unreasonable," Grayson said. "We'll find out who are the people who understand that the public's money needs to be protected, and who are the people who simply want to suck up to their patrons on Wall Street."

After the AIG bonus tax bill was passed, some members of the House privately expressed regret for having supported it and were quietly relieved when the White House and Senate leadership sent it to an unceremonious death. But populist rage did not die with it, and now the House is preparing to do it all again. "

Byron York, The Examiner’s chief political correspondent, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Friday, and his stories and blog posts can be read daily at ExaminerPolitics.com. "

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Beyond-AIG-A-Bill-to-let-Big-Government-Set-Your-Salary-42158597.html