Pay Czar Bequeths Waivers Upon 12 Anointed Ones

His highness Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama Administration's pay czar, anointed 12 chosen ones and bequethed them with waivers on their salary caps.

The Treasury Department has told four bailed-out companies that they can't pay some top earners more than $500,000 cash per year. But it's told the official who made that decision that the rule shouldn't always apply.

Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration's pay czar, said Friday that lobbying by Treasury and Federal Reserve officials helped persuade him to exempt about 12 executives from the salary cap. The pay cap will affect about 300 employees at Citigroup Inc., GMAC, American International Group Inc. and General Motors.

The move highlights tension between the government's competing priorities: Appeasing public fury over outsized pay, while making sure the firms retain the talent they need to stay competitive and repay their taxpayer billions.

Maybe if the federal government hadn't been so "generous" with tax-payer money handouts in the first place, conflict between outsized pay and public fury wouldn't be such an issue!