President Barack Obama called bonus payouts at banks getting rescue funds “shameful” as he and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced the government will require financial companies getting aid in the future to cap compensation of top officials at $500,000 a year. “To restore our financial system, we’ve got to restore trust,” Obama said at the White House as he set out new rules for companies that seek “exceptional”...

With Congress moving toward passage of an $800-billion-plus economic stimulus plan, big government is back. Unabashed. With a vengeance. The stimulus is bigger than the Pentagon’s entire budget. It’s more than the United States has spent on the war in Iraq. And its hundreds of provisions reach into almost every aspect of American life — including workers’ paychecks, local schools, digital television and modernizing...