CEO pay should be left to companies

Some corporate executives in the United States are paid outrageously high salaries. Notice we did not state that they "earn" their compensation packages. Some do not. Some who receive eight-figure salary and benefit deals have driven their companies into the ground during the past several years.

But should government dictate what people are paid in the private sector? Absolutely not. Keep in mind some executives guilty of mismanagement while receiving astronomically high compensation packages were lavishly praised by the very members of Congress now eager to become involved in how executive pay is set. Need we remind you of the praise liberal lawmakers had for former Fannie Mae Chief Executive Officer Franklin Raines?

Companies that have received federal help through the Troubled Asset Relief Program will have their compensation programs reviewed - and perhaps revised - by federal officials. But President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also want a federal role in compensation at other companies.

According to one report about the plan, it would "give shareholders a nonbinding voice on executive pay ..." Corporations' shareholders already have a voice in how their companies are run - and it is binding. Should a majority of shareholders decide they don't like a firm's managers, they can replace them.

While shareholders may not have exercised that power much in the past, we suspect they will be more eager to do so in the future. The White House and Congress should not interfere.