Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Let Them Go to Dubai

Rich Galen

Friday October 23, 2009

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The Obama Government (used to be the Obama Administration but they're way WAY beyond just being an "Administration") has decreed how much the senior executives at all those companies which got run into the ground should make.

It seems that the starting point for what they should be paid is about 10 percent of whatever the executives were making before the Obama Government made its decisions.

I am of two minds.

My first mind says: The executives of those huge brokerages and banks which darned near made evry ATM on the planet as useful as a boat anchor attached to the side of a building deserve to make minimum wage.

And they should be chained in their offices so they can't escape to their homes in the Hamptons which they bought after they had brought the world financial system to its collective knees.

The executives at GM and at Chrysler - which are both probably going to go out of business in spite of the 70-or-so billion we pumped into those brilliantly run companies - should make whatever the lowest paid member of the autoworkers union makes. Without the health benefits.

And they should be required to drive a used Yugo which, as it happens, is the only kind of Yugo which exists in these United States.

My first mind thinks there would be nothing better than for all of those clowns to have to go through foreclosure on their beautiful homes and have to move in with their kids.

My second mind says, it is very dangerous for the Obama Government to decide it can make this kind of pronouncement because the company in question took government funds.

Putting aside defense firms - which exist on government funds - there are thousands and thousands of companies which get local, county, state or federal contracts. Does every executive of each of those companies fall under the same rule?

Should the Governor of Missouri decide how much the owner of the company which provides the janitorial services in the State House in Jefferson City can earn because he takes State money? Or, the executives of airlines on which government employees fly?

Think I'm making this up? Here's the lead paragraph from this morning's Washington Post:

The Federal Reserve joined the Treasury Department on Thursday in imposing new limits on executive pay, extending the government's control over compensation at taxpayer-owned companies to institutions that are merely government regulated.

Oh! Wait! How. About. That. Guy. John? From Papa John's? Because they deliver to the Old Executive Office Building when the staff is working late. Who's going to be in charge of deciding how much he should make?

See what I mean?

My second mind says that the logic is somewhat flawed.

The argument in favor of paying these guys is that they will go somewhere else where they can be paid the market rates for the jobs they hold. Like London. Or Berlin. Or Dubai.

Here's what both my minds think about that: If you can do for the U.K. or Germany or the Arabs what you did for America I have one word: Let me help you pack.

The good thing about them going to Dubai (in addition to going snow skiing when its 121 Fahrenheit outside) is, if they screw up as badly there as they did here, Gitmo will seem like the Caymans by the time the Arabs are done with them.

New Topic

Hold off on that new edition of "Profiles in Courage." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing an idea which lets him, like the worm that he is, wriggle off the hook on that pesky public option part of health care reform.

His idea? Have the Congress pass it, but let individual states opt out. Is the word wuss spelled the same way in Nevada as it is where you live?

Harry? You are a United States Senator and you should have some pride. If you want the public option, take it to the floor of the U.S. Senate. Don's send it to the floor of the State Senate in places like Jefferson City, Missouri.

They already have their hands full trying to decide how much the owner of the janitorial service should make.

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On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to the Wash Post article and the Wall Street Journal account of the "state option." Also a Mullfoto from Reagan National Airport and a silly Catchy Caption of the Day.

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