Who's In Control Here?

The czars, that's who:

What is pay czar Kenneth Feinberg up to these days? He's claiming broad, unlimited power to retroactively "claw back" executive compensation paid to employees of TARP recipients. Open sky. L'czar c'est moi.

Via Reuters, here are the details of the confiscatory special master's new designs:

Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration's pay czar, said on Sunday he has broad and "binding" authority over executive compensation, including the ability to "claw back" money already paid, and he is weighing how and whether to use that power.

Feinberg told Reuters that Citigroup Inc included the contract of energy trader Andrew Hall in submissions due Friday by seven major companies still locked in the federal government's TARP Program.

Feinberg said he hasn't looked at Hall's contract, which reports have said could pay him as much as $100 million this year.

"Whether I have jurisdiction to decide his compensation or not, we will take a look and decide over the next few weeks," Feinberg said after speaking at a public forum in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, part of a newsmaker series hosted by the Martha's Vineyard Times newspaper.

Feinberg has been consulting with seven companies that have yet to pay back money they borrowed from the government, including Citi, American International Group Inc, Bank of America Corp, Chrysler Financial, Chrysler Group LLC, General Motors Co and GMAC Inc.

Those companies faced a deadline of Friday of submitted proposals to Feinberg for their top 25 employees.

Feinberg said on Sunday that decisions he makes will be "binding," but the law limits his power over contracts signed before February 11, 2009.

He also said he has the authority to use a "clawback" provision to go after compensation for executives from any company that received money from the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Progr.am (TARP).

Feinberg is claiming emperorship over the pay of these companies' executives:

"I have the discretion, conferred upon by Congress, to attempt to recover compensation that has already been paid to executives not only in these companies, but in any company that received federal assistance," Feinberg said during his remarks.

Asked by Reuters if he could use that ability to target a firm like Goldman Sachs Group Inc, which paid back $10 billion in bailout money, Feinberg said: "Anything is possible under the law."

Of course, like so many liberal power grabs, there are already flies in the ointment, as two Citi execs are supposedly exempt from Feinberg's tentacles due to signing contracts before Citi took TARP money.  This is by no stretch of the imagination a fair, just, or constitutional practice, and should be soundly rebuked.  Of course, the nature of the czars means that only Obama can do that rebuking, so don't hold your breath.

Michelle Malkin adds this:

Chapter 6 of Culture of Corruption details the myriad ties between Citi, the Obama White House, and the Obama Treasury Department.

Stay tuned. And let this be a continuing lesson to corporations considering federal bailout money in the future:

Government strings are like STDs. They last forever.

Is anyone else getting at all nervous about all these czars running around with authority granted purely by the President, with no Congressional oversight, no accountability, and no requirement to keep their dealings transparent?  This is precisely what conservatives said would happen back when TARP was first offered, and now it's happening in real life.

The next step: extending the emperorship to companies that didn't take TARP money.  Oh yes, it's coming.  Just wait.

And by the way...didn't Hitler have a pay czar, too?  I'm pretty certain I heard that recently, though I can't find a link at the moment.  I'll keep looking and post one when I find it.

There's my two cents.