Got a lotta money but he ain't worth a damn

Executive pay limits are apparently going to be removed from the stimulus bill because a Congressional Budget Office estimate claims that they will result in $10.8 billion in lost tax revenues over ten years, running afoul of Republican demands to limit the overall price of the stimulus.

This is one of the dumbest, most obscene arguments I have seen yet on an aspect of the stimulus bill.

And the argument is almost certainly wrong. For one thing, if those twenty-first century robber barons aren't getting the funds and paying taxes on them, their employers aren't getting the tax deductions on those salaries. If the employers are instead paying those amounts out to other people, those folks are paying the taxes on them. And spare us the fiction that those people are being taxed at a lower rate on that salary, as study after study has shown the reality that the top wage earners pay the lowest effective tax rates. Moreover, the more modestly-paid employees will be more likely to spend the capital, thus providing more benefit to the economy.

So let the GOP parade that complaint in front of the general public. Force them to parade that complaint in front of the general public.

Which is what it appears some savvy Dems plan to do.

"The plan is to take out the executive compensation provisions ... and blame the Republicans for setting out the level [of $800 billion]" for the final version of the stimulus, [Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA)] said.

"The question," he added, "is whether the two senators from Maine, in particular, want to see their insistence on a [maximum] dollar amount [for the stimulus] ... be the reason why the executive compensation stuff comes out of the bill."

I'll believe in this tactic when I see it in action. But if it's true, good for them.