Pay Cuts for Wall Street, Required Window Glazing and the New Public Option
The White House “pay czar” plans to cut paychecks for top bank executives by 50%.
Environmental regulators in California move to require all cars sold in the state to come with “advanced window glazing.”
Congressional Democrats continue to push for a government-run health care “option” under a different name.
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.
1. BUSINESS
The White House “pay czar” plans to cut paychecks for top bank executives by 50%.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Attorney Hans Bader on how the government is mismanaging executive compensation.
“The federal government has no problem paying exorbitant sums of money to people who head failed government agencies like Freddie Mac…The federal government does, however, have a problem with big compensation packages at private banks like Bank of America and Citigroup, even for new executives and talented managers who had nothing to do with any financial mismanagement. Obama’s pay czar, Ken Feinberg, a major donor to liberal politicians like Sen. Chris Dodd, is now chopping compensation more at basically self-supporting institutions like Bank of America than at completely-bailed out entities like Chrysler.”
2. CONSUMER
Environmental regulators in California move to require all cars sold in the state to come with “advanced window glazing.”
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Risk and Environmental Policy Angela Logomasini on the expanding nanny state:
“It’s not just bottled water. It’s not just soda taxes. It’s not just fast food. There seems to be a never-ending crusade by big government do-gooders to chip away at the family budget and our personal freedoms. Why? They think know what’s best for the rest of us. As usual, California leads the way with this stupidity. They’re now mandating that California automakers use “metallic reflective window glazing” on the windows of all new cars in the state starting 2012. Supposedly that will translate into drivers using less a/c, which will help save the planet from global warming. Wow. That’s even dumper than the state of Virginia’s law against certain levels of window tinting!”
3. HEALTH CARE
Congressional Democrats continue to push for a government-run health care “option” under a different name.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Gregory Conko on what we can expect from the Senate’s current version of health care reform:
“Despite claims that the Senate Finance Committee’s health care reform bill will
rein in costs and eliminate waste from the system, the proposal will actually lead to higher health care costs and an exploding budget problem for the federal and state governments. The only features of that bill, and the other congressional Democratic proposals, that could reduce the growth rate in health care costs are not structured to work adequately.”
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.