Don't Dare Call it Socialism

Here it comes:

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.

Our betters in Washington have been trying to determine salaries and wages for decades now, and most any method — or excuse — has been just fine with them.

Soon, they’ll determine what a manufacturing job is worth, as they struggle to “save” Detroit. The financial sector is already theirs. The health industry is going to feel Washington’s warm embrace in months or maybe weeks. Then the politicalization of everyone’s pay will become a simple fact of life.

Forget performance. Forget your worth. What will matter is your pull and your status as a victim. Value won’t matter nearly so much as your group’s ability to whine and agitate.

And this is how we’re going to achieve enough growth to offset Obama’s big budgets?