by Connie Hair
HumanEvents.com

The White House Pay Czar late yesterday set pay levels of private citizens in the financial industry at companies receiving TARP funding.  In most instances, executive compensation packages would be cut in half while in one instance the pay cut is 90 percent -- which will virtually guarantee a brain drain at companies where taxpayers are on the hook for billions of dollars.

The seven companies are AIG, Bank of America, Citigroup, General Motors Co., GMAC Inc., Chrysler Group LLC and Chrysler Financial.

Rep. Tom Price, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, denounced the unprecedented government intrusion into private industry and the fundamental changes to our free market system.

“Where does this inane government intervention end?” Price asked. “This move, along with the original decision to bailout these companies, contradicts the fundamental principles that have provided us unparalleled prosperity. When the government can create powers out of thin air and set arbitrary pay standards for private citizens, we have told the world that politicians now drive the American economy, not people and markets.”

“This issue strikes at a fundamental question of the role of government,” Price continued.  “While history and principle have long proven that private markets are where prices are most efficiently set, this administration has decided that there is no question which bureaucrats cannot answer.” Please read more....