Salary Cap: Says Who?

President Obama is calling for a salary cap on company executives who receive any TARP bailout money, claiming it is "the height of irresponsibility" to pocket taxpayer dollars.

Now don't that beat all. He's upset because he and President Bush gave the Wall Street bankers and auto makers hundreds of billions of hope dollars and did not think to put any meaningful restrictions on how the money was to be used. They all just "hoped" the bankers would do their version of the responsible thing.

So who is the irresponsible one in this mess?

He and Bush couldn't imagine that the money-makers on Wall Street would be pocketing large amounts of the hope money. If the two Presidents and US Congress had not interfered with the US economic system in October, the Wall Street executives would have received pay and bonuses equal to their performance. A company that is bankrupt cannot handout huge paydays to those who led it to that end. Well, unless it's the government we're talking about.

This just emphasizes why the government must be stopped from mortgaging the country's future with the largest pork package in US history (to be paid after those making these lousy decisions are long gone).

Additionally, this is the next step in the destruction of free market capitalist system. The very system that made it possible for this country to become the world leading country that it is. This is just one reason why the entire hoax that is TARP and the Lobbyists' Stimulus and Recovery Act of 2009 needs to be tossed and sooner rather then later.

Government officials, including the president and US Congress should not be in the business of dictating how much anyone should be paid in private industry, whether rich, poor or between. The US Congress should restrict their payroll machinations to giving themselves raises. And this President, who has no meaningful experience at anything (especially the private sector), is the last person who should be dictating salaries and wages.

By the way: Rich people getting richer is not a crime. But, stealing money from people is a crime and using the power of government to force people to pay for the failures of others is also a crime in my book. Barack Obama, Christopher Dodd, Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the George W. Bush administration are principly responsible for the current trumped up economic crisis. I can see no provable reason why these people should be permitted to meddle with the economy. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn't even have the slightest clue about how many people actually work in this country. She claims 500,000,000 will lose their jobs if the Lobbyists' Stimulus and Recovery Act of 2009 is not passed quickly.

I'll admit that I, just like any other average worker, marvel at the astronomical sums being raked in by many private sector CEOs and executives. And I marvel at the huge sums being raked in once politicians leave office. But capping wages and bonuses will only hamstring the economy further. The only way to ensure that the capitalist system is functioning properly is to allow it to work. To get out of the way as much as possible while ensuring compliance with the law. And that includes allowing companies fail. If President Bush and President Obama had gotten out of the way, the bad actors would be looking for work in other fields rather than reaping the benefits of the elected class's largess. All the money that would be lost would have belonged to those who supported such irrational investment "instruments". The real property that is blamed for the mess is still here, still available and still worth a lot more than zero,as we nhave been led to believe.

I'm positive many of our neighbors would have lost their jobs with or without this government interference. However, not it not by their own doing. But rather by the US Congress, the FTC, the SEC, the DoJ and the Presidents' doing, or lack thereof.

For our neighbors I say extend unemployment benefits, freeze owner occupied home foreclosures, create new home financing instruments that help working Americans, and force the banks to play or go away. (My conspiratorial side tells me that Wall Street, in collusion with government officials, manufactured this "credit crisis" for the express purpose of fleecing the US taxpayers.)

Capping income by government is not the way to fix anything. Government interference in the process needs to be limited to preventing the cheaters, such as the Bernard Madoffs, Enrons, Fannie Maes and Freddie Macs, from committing crimes, exacting justice on those who do, and to prevent the public from being financially injured by the process as much as possible.

To President Obama:

Keep your government bailouts and supporter payola. You do not understand the long term affects of all this government interference (or you do, which would be much, much worse). Allow the country to recover from this financial pain quicker and easier without pounding the national debt. The monstrous spending bills that have been passed in congress will only make the economy worse, much worse. You can pay back your supporters in other ways.