...if Congress gets its way, an unelected political appointee will soon have the power to solely decide what constitutes “excessive compensation” and forcibly confiscate it.
I’m talking about the so-called “Pay for Performance Act.”
Sponsored by Florida Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson, it gives the Treasury Secretary
unprecedented powers to confiscate the pay of ANY employee at ANY company that
received bailout funds if he thinks they didn’t really earn it – even if the compensation was required by a legal contract.If it passes, the federal government would have the power to forcibly dictate the salaries of millions of private employees.
It’s another step towards the “maximum wage” law many socialists have been demanding for years.
And it doesn’t define what unearned pay actually is. It gives Tim Geithner, a man who decided to exempt himself from taxes, sole power to write whatever rules he pleases.
It also applies to ANY employee, not just a manager or someone who lost money. If you do ANY work for ANY company that accepted funds – even if you were a profitable employee who did everything right – the government would have the power to steal your paycheck from you.
And it’s retroactive, allowing the Treasury Secretary to use force against people for doing something that was perfectly legal at the time and required by contract.
The Soviet Union didn’t even allow its agents to do that to its citizens!
Now, no one should be getting rich off the taxpayer, but if allowing unelected bureaucrats unchecked authority to steal paychecks with no standard or procedure isn’t scary, I don’t know what is.
Giving the Executive Branch unchecked, uncontrolled and unconstitutional powers was a bad idea under the Bush administration, and it’s still a bad idea under Obama.
And this kind of federal power grab – allowing the Treasury Secretary to invent his own rules and steal paychecks from even profitable and low-level employees for any reason whatsoever – is exactly what the Libertarian Party was founded to fight.
Again, no one’s arguing that incompetent managers should be entitled to taxpayer cash. But this bill would hand an unelected bureaucrat undefined and uncontrolled powers to override legal contracts and decide for himself what private citizens should earn.
It’s another frightening step towards a totally nationalized economy.
This so-called “Pay for Performance Act” is nothing more than another step towards a virtual “national salary cap.”
EVERYONE is at risk.
Please fight back today.
Yours in liberty,
Robert Kraus
Acting Executive Director, Libertarian National Committee
I am amazed by the lack of uproar across our country at how powerful our government continues to grow. These are scary times, and with each baby step our government is taking, it gets more and more frightening.
Where is the outrage?!!
Questioning Politics
