Whatever your opinion of the propriety of the Obama administration’s decision to slash compensation for the top 25 executives at each of five major financial companies and two automakers, one lesson is indisputable: Government involvement means government management. It puts an entirely new spin on the president’s speech to an Ohio General Motors plant: “I didn’t run for president to manage auto companies. It wasn’t something on my to-do list. It wasn’t even something on my want-to-do list. I like driving cars — sometimes, you know, I can change a spark plug or change a tire, but I don’t know so much about cars that I wanted to be deeply involved in the car industry.”

Not only has the administration become deeply involved in the car industry, it has also jumped headfirst into banking and construction, through the Toxic Asset Relief Program and the $787 economic stimulus package, respectively. Clearly these are not areas where Obama touts particular expertise, but you wouldn’t know it from his policies. On Thursday, Kenneth Feinberg, Obama’s “pay czar,” unveiled an elaborate scheme by which his decision on what top executives earn is binding. This is what comes of handing corporations billions in taxpayer funds, as well as other government support.