The role of the Pay Czar, according to Obama, is to have the government beat up and chop up the (large) compensation practices of the companies whom the government bails out, under the guise of fairness and necessity. In truth, the companies have almost all paid the bailouts back and it hasn’t cost the government too many millions except, perhaps, with AIG who hasn’t returned all of their funds. Nonetheless, we were told it was essential to have this agent put in place to handle this dire problem.
This begs the question: if the government is so intent on bullying the compensation of those “overpaid” for their services, why then are they not doing the same for the public sector? Now there’s a real place which could stand more than a mere trimming. Such cuts, in the form of reduced compensation and decreased pension plans, would serve to keep our government and public service unions at least a little less bloated.
Certainly, if the Obama administration were to follow its self-avowed principle to scale back organizations that are overcompensated, they should look no further than the government itself. Considering our staggering deficit situation, as stewards of the taxpayer’s money, the public arena should be — must be — drastically reduced to be in line with the private service sector.