I Got Nothin' on the Bailout

As Allah and other say, this is above my paygrade.

McCain's press conference called for, among other things, strong transparency, accountability, and oversight of the bailout, by a bipartisan board with real power; absolutely no larding the bill up with earmarks for "favored companies;" and a cap of $400,000 per year in salary for any company rescued by the bailout.

On that last point, he's right. Before you cry "socialism," bear in mind that the industry is essentially begging for a federal takeover. If they're going to be federalized, they're not private endeavors any longer, and McCain has a fair basis to insist that anyone working for such governmentalized agencies should not make more than the highest paid federal official (the President, as it turns out).

When/if the mess is fixed, they can go back to being wholly private corporations again. But it's a tad much for anyone to insist these companies get to act like private affairs when the taxpayers are being called upon to save them.

As a practical matter, it's a bit of symbolic populism. And if that's what's necessary to sell this to the public, well, that's not going to be the hill I'm personally dying on.

posted by Ace at 05:12 PM

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