The House of Representatives recently approved a bill to impose a 90% tax on bonuses given to AIG executives, which is now dead.  Now, a new piece of legislation will apply retroactively and essentially have the ability to cancel contracts.  Here's a summary:

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.

     If this isn't bad enough, the legislation will further expand government powers, especially those of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. 

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."

     So to summarize, the government will be able to cancel contracts, and decide how much workers at all levels of a company should be paid.  Deciding the proper level of employee compensation at a company should not be the job of the government.  Some may argue that the government has the right to make these decisions since they have made a sizable investment in these companies.  That is a valid point, but it just underscores the most important point: The government shouldn't have bailed out companies in the first place.  Capitalism comes with risks, and right now, capitalism is being undermined.


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