Last week, in an effort to take back the bonuses received by AIG executives, the Congress considered taxing the bonuses at a rate of 90%. Since then they have moved away from this plan, but are now considering another socialist approach to controlling business. In an article in the Washington Examiner, Byron York discusses an effort to pass legislation that would stipulate the performance of every employee in a bailed-out company and control their salaries:

In a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the "Pay for Performance Act of 2009," would impose government controls on the pay of all employees -- not just top executives -- of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.

Socialism begins with government interference in corporations. Bills like this make the prospect of a fully socialist or even Soviet-style communist government not unthinkable: it could lead to Congress eventually mandating universally equal pay in an effort to "be fair." It's difficult to believe how quickly the United States are moving in this direction, even though it was somewhat inevitable. This president is still in his first 100 days, but already he has dramatically affected to direction of this country. Proposals like this highlight what seems to be the government's goal of stripping the American people of any freedom they might have.