Executive Pay today, Your pay tomorrow!!!

A dangerous undercurrent is flowing within the Obama Administration to the liberties of all Americans. Set aside your party affiliation, your ideologue, and your racial bias for a moment. A little over 200 years ago several colonials put their lives on the line to ensure we'd be able to live in a country free of tyranny. Those liberties firmly implanted by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution are under assault. The proof is in a headline I read as I pick up my morning paper: Pay Czar to drop hammer on execs. Since when does an advisor to the President of the United States dictate the terms of employment?

That is exactly what Kenneth Feinberg is about to do. Feinberg was appointed by President Obama to be the Treasury's special master for corporate pay this past June. The position did not go through Senate approval process and it appears that the position has wide latitude in handling affairs of corporate pay. According to the Politico "sources within the administration say the decision to cap corporate pay was Kenneth Feinberg's, and his alone." And that "…Obama did not sign off on the pay master's decision. Feinberg didn't even brief the White House on it, the official said, but he briefed Treasury officials instead." Did I miss something since our election last year where Americans voted to allow the Government to dictate pay terms for the private sector?

I understand that drastic measures were taken to right the financial market ship. TARP did nothing to address the root causes of the "financial meltdown"; rather it just threw dollars into the furnace. The plan put forth by Pay Czar Feinberg is to "slash the salaries of their top executives by an average of 90 percent and cut their total compensation in half" (www.startribune.com). Not all companies that received TARP funds will be affected. The companies in question are: Bank of America Crop, American International Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., General Motors, GMAC, Chrysler and Chrysler Financial.

The Obama Administration is hiding behind TARP funds as the gateway for the Government to dictate executive pay terms. To agree with the decision of Feinberg is an acknowledgement of acceptance that Nationalization of the private sector is within the scope of Government. Our Founding Fathers fought against the tyranny of the King of England because of excessive taxation and control within the colony at risk of death. Americans wake up and shed the wool. The reckless independence given Feinberg is shredding the documents and principals our Founding Fathers risked their lives for.

What happens next time when a crisis hits? Yesterday President Obama sent forth a plan to open funds for small businesses. Beware small business owners and take note from the TARP fund recipients. What the Obama Administration giveth, the Obama Administration taketh.

Czar Obama

While the use of Czars have been in Washington for several decades now, but President Obama is taking it to new heights. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Vir., is concerned by the expansive use of Czars under President Obama. Sen. Byrd is seeing the use of Czars as for President Obama to skirt Congresses Constitutional power. Czars do not have to go through Senate confirmations since there is no Constitutional requirement.

Rep. Ernest Istook stated that, “If Barack Obama thinks that the executive branch is badly organized, and you could make a great case for that, then he ought to present a coherent system.” The trouble Rep. Istook is that President Obama is not calling the shots if you believe Rev. Wright. The latest Czar is Kenneth Feinberg who was appointed as “Special Master of Compensation” to keep track of compensation paid to executives.

Neil Braithwaite warns, in his article “Beware the Czar’s of Obama!”, that President Obama is laying the groundwork that mirrors the Office of Price Administration (OPA) that was instituted during FDR’s administration to ration goods and control wages all in the guise of the war effort. Mr. Braithwaite concludes his article by saying, “Once Obama realizes he needs a real war to fully implement his plans to “stabilize” the economy, he will reinstate the “war on terror”, and get busy resurrecting the full powers of the OPA. For the sake of all America is and stands for, let’s all hope Obama’s administration and historians continue to stay mired in the last eight “Bush” years.”

A report today in the Star Tribune, I believe the article was a transplant though, stated that Al Qaeda is heading to Yemen and Somali as efforts from drone attacks are taking their toll in Pakistan. But I digress. The Czar count is 20 and if a cyber Czar is established the list could grow. David Rothkopf writes in the Foreign Policy, Its official: Obama creates more czars than the Romanovs. In his article, Mr. Rothkopf mentions that, “all this czarism is a risky business that ends up producing bureaucratic bottlenecks, tensions and inefficiency when not managed extremely carefully.”

As the Health Care reform debate rages on in Congress, the potential of a Health Czar is likely especially if President Obama sees his vision of a single-payer government run system hits the wall. The establishment of a Czar of Health will be Presidents end run on Congress if they fail to pass his plan.