February 9, 2009
New Prez Pleads
for Common Sense
I like a president who pleads for common sense.
Here's the story, headlined in the New York Times: “Obama Calls for ‘Common
Sense' on Executive Pay.”
The president announced a salary cap for top executives working for companies
garnering the greatest gobs of booty under the most recent federal bailout. The
cap? Half a million bucks.
President Obama allayed a few qualms, right away. He said that “This is
America, we don't disparage wealth. . . .” And he said, “we certainly believe
that success should be rewarded.”
But he does talk about the “height of irresponsibility” in Bush administration
bailouts, with execs taking huge bonuses after running their companies into the
ground. Who wasn't sickened by this? Obama sees it as common sense to make sure
we don't reward massive failure with the usual rewards of success.
Still, America is also about respecting contracts. Those corporations had
negotiated very explicit contracts with their execs regarding the big bucks.
And — surprise, surprise — Congress wrote up the law on the gargantuan bailouts
without requiring those contracts be renegotiated.
And consider: Do we really want our politicians setting non-government
salaries?
This is all a side issue, though. Take the bailouts themselves. Where's the
common sense there? They do reward failure. They will not help the economy. If
our leaders had acted according to common sense, the whole salary issue
wouldn't even have come up.
This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.
Paul Jacob is President of Citizens in Charge and the Citizens in Charge
Foundation, which sponsors both Common Sense and Paul's weekly Townhall Column.
The opinions expressed in Common Sense are Paul Jacob's and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Citizens in Charge or the Citizens in Charge Foundation.
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