RobertG, on Jennifer Rubin:

Employee compensation is a cost of doing business. It is not paid out of earnings. Its what we call in the business world an “above the line” expense. Therefore if the government wants AIG to renege on its employee contracts by cutting their employees pay, perhaps they should also scream about office lease expenses, utility bills, information costs, computing expense, etc. etc. Either they are going to bail them out from their faulty business model, or they are going to let them go bankrupt. But if AIG needs to pay key employees an amount deemed outrageous by B.O. and company, well then, that should have been a determinant before they decided to bail out the firm.