From Quinnipiac's new national survey, released yesterday:

21. Do you think the government should limit the amount of money that companies NOT taking federal funds pay their executives?

Yes 30%
No 64%
DK 6%

Think about these numbers for a second. Three out of ten Americans (including 22% of Republicans, 27% of Independents, and 40% of Democrats) believe the United States government should just reach in and tell companies how much they can pay their executives even if that company has not taken a single dime of taxpayer money.

That, my friends, is absolutely nuts.  Like others, I've been disgusted in the past over massive CEO payouts and golden parachutes, but however mad those things might have made me I never once thought the answer was to have the US government step in and put limits on what companies can pay their employees.

One can only hope this is a temporary, misplaced sentiment generated by residual anger over the AIG bonuses, and that it passes like a fever.