A bill to let Big Government set your salary

Over at Self Evident Truths Euripides has a regular feature called The Snarky Files. Good stuff. This caught my eye:

Socialized
Meanwhile, Congress is doing its part to follow the party line Obama's policies. Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, has approved in committee the "Pay for Performance Act of 2009." Not satisfied with the dangerous trend of the president of the US telling the CEO of a private business to resign, Frank wants to also control all of the money that companies pay their employees. Can you say redistribution of wealth? Can you say socialism? Can you say the end of capitalism? Sure I knew you could.


Here is a summary of the PPA of 2009 referenced above if you didn't already follow the link..
From the WashintonExaminer:
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.