WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Top earners at  financial and auto companies bailed out by the U.S. government  will see their pay slashed under an Obama administration plan  aimed at addressing public outrage over eye-popping paychecks,  two sources familiar with the matter said yesterday.  

The plan calls for halving overall compensation, and  cutting cash salary payouts by an average of 90 percent, said  the sources, who requested anonymity because they were not  authorized to speak publicly about the matter.  

The sweeping cuts, being negotiated by U.S. pay czar  Kenneth Feinberg, would mark a bold move for an administration  that has railed against excessively high pay on Wall Street.  

White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers told the  Reuters Washington Summit yesterday that he believed  Feinberg’s review would “produce an outcome where they will be  very substantially reduced.”  
White House spokesman Bill Burton, traveling with President  Barack Obama in New Jersey, told reporters, “The president put  Ken Feinberg in place in order to be an advocate for taxpayers  and it appears that Mr. Feinberg is doing what the president  put him in place to do.” Otherwise, Burton said, he would not  comment ahead of the report, due Oct. 30. The companies affected are: AIG, Bank of America,  Citigroup, General Motors, Chrysler, GMAC and Chrysler  Financial. They all declined to comment. 

A Treasury Department spokesman also declined to comment.  

Blockbuster earnings and bonuses at Goldman Sachs Group Inc   and other companies that received taxpayer assistance have  stoked public anger over compensation as the United States  grapples with a 9.8 percent unemployment level and little  assistance for homeowners struggling to pay mortgages.