Edmund Andrews and Vikas Bajaj write for the New York Times that

The Obama administration is expected to impose a cap of $500,000 for top executives at companies that receive large amounts of bailout money. … Executives would also be prohibited from receiving any bonuses above their base pay, except for normal stock dividends.

The CEOs of the financial industry brought this on themselves because they proved they can’t be trusted with money. We saw from the first wave of no-strings-or-oversight-attached bailouts from the Bush Administration that they can’t be trusted with money. You might as well give the bailout money to crack addicts.

Although CEOs cannot directly write their own checks, as I understand it their compensation is determined by the Board of Directors, an insulated group of people living in the same bubble of privilege as the executives. Apparently, boards of directors of financial institutions cannot be trusted with money, either.

Those who are still insulated are whining that a $500,000 cap is “draconian.” Steve Benen writes,

What a fascinating perspective. There are a series of companies that have been managed poorly and are on the verge of collapse. They’re going to the federal government, hat in hand, hoping to get tax dollars to keep them afloat. As James F. Reda sees it, a $500,000 salary is “draconian,” and might lead frustrated executives — accustomed to exorbitant salaries disconnected to job performance — to leave the companies they helped drive into the ground. Companies that would no longer exist were it not for government intervention.

And this is a problem, because … ?

I agree with Steve that there must be some sharp people in the ranks of financial industry management who would be happy to take $500,000 a year. As for those executives who would be insulted and quit — good luck finding work elsewhere, bub.

The bad news is that it seems the stimulus bill is falling short of votes in the Senate. See the Talking Dog for background.

Gary Kamiya reminds us what’s at stake:

We are in a dreadful economic crisis, the worst in the lifetime of anyone who is under 70 years old. Forget the abstract statistic that millions of people are out of work and try to grasp this staggering reality: Twenty thousand jobs a day are being lost. Millions of people have lost their homes and their life savings. Countless millions have no health insurance. Businesses are failing at a staggering rate. Desperate states are shutting down services.

This is not a drill. These are real things that are happening to real people, people we all know. Everyone, whether they’re poor, working-class or middle-class, has either suffered themselves from the economic collapse or knows someone who has.

Try explaining that to the Senate. Thanks.