Crony Faux-Capitalism, and Proud of It?
President Obama's press conference yesterday was another, in a long list of, missed opportunities to bridge the growing political divide in America which is ripping us apart. If you pay careful attention to the words Mr. Obama uses, and the context in which he uses them, you will notice a consistent, and troubling, pattern. Mr. Obama rarely uses any data or evidence when he talks about the economy and taxes and he carefully, and deliberately, uses terms which are impossible to define. He does this because he is employing a marketing technique, to sell to Americans, economic policies which are failing us.
For example, President Obama uses terms such as "fair-share" when talking about taxes without discussing what exactly that means. What is a "fair-share?" Is there a number he can provide us to assist us in managing our finances? Is there evidence that his tax rate number actually generates growth and tax revenue? He avoids all of these “complexities” because he isn't really interested in growth. But, he is interested in control of your money and, when you are ideologically committed to state-control of a free economy, you use slick marketing to separate people, from their hard-earned money.
Here's another example; did you ever notice that when President Obama discusses the economy and growth, he always discusses them in terms of what he will "allow" and "not allow?" "Allow?" What kind of country have we morphed into where American's economic prosperity and security are held hostage to the ideology of one man? We are not a monarchy; yet.
Sadly, the administration is lording over the transformation of a once free economy into a state-controlled, economic monster. In this new economy, friends and donors to the politically-connected class move directly to the front of the line for government-approved "credit" in the form of tax-payer subsidies and they write their own regulations to ensure that their competitors are buried in red-tape.
These regulations are being put into place to bankrupt ideological enemies of the President and his crony faux-capitalist friends (i.e. coal, derivatives markets, the petroleum industry), with zero regard for the millions of lives negatively impacted by the administration's ongoing assault on economic liberty. These regulations double-down on economic destruction by bankrupting small businesses, not connected to the political cocktail-party-class, who are unable to handle the massive legal fees associated with complying with the thousands of pages of red-tape, regulatory measures slapped on their backs as they are trying to get up from the near knockout-punch the recession delivered to them.
Finally, I need to address a counter argument which many of the President's supporters are using in a bait-and-switch tactic. It goes something like this, "The President is doing a great job! The stock market is up, fuel costs are down, and the economy is adding jobs." While these statements are factually correct, they completely ignore the role of the President's policy initiatives.
First, the stock market is up in spite of the President's policies, and here's the evidence. American businesses are doing quite well, but not here. Much of their bottom-line growth is coming from overseas sales and the cutbacks on expenses such as labor. In other words, many of these companies, due to our corporate tax rate, which is the highest in the industrialized world, are leaving us to stay profitable in a globally competitive market. If we refuse to fix this problem, both outsourcing and off-shoring will continue and American employees will suffer.
Second, fuel costs are down because petroleum-extraction technology has enabled us to tap into our, once-hidden, wealth of oil and gas. We are floating on petroleum wealth here in the United States and this is driving down fuel prices. But, and this is crucial, this is happening on PRIVATE land, not PUBLIC land. The President is actively standing in the way of us responsibly developing a limited subset of public land, and the hidden wealth underneath. That the President takes credit for the decrease in gas prices, despite his numerous attempts to block bi-partisan energy-development plans (i.e. Keystone, ANWAR, continental-shelf exploration), is utterly outrageous. If he would just get out of the way, gas prices would be likely be dramatically lower.
Third, although we are adding jobs, we are doing slow at the SLOWEST rate of any economic recovery in modern times. In the eight years of both the Reagan and Clinton administrations, they were both in office while the economy created over 15 million jobs. For President Obama to leave office with the same results the economy would have to generate 10 million MORE JOBS in his final two years alone.
In conclusion, Mr. Obama's state-controlled "capitalism" model is an abysmal failure that has only succeeded in increasing the paper-wealth of America's crony faux-capitalists. Surely, many of you remember the real economic recoveries of the Reagan and Clinton years where your neighbor and you both had smiles on your faces. The only people smiling now are the jokers who made big investments in expensive Washington DC cocktail parties to cater to the elected oligarchs who get to pick who wins and, tragically, who loses in our new government-controlled "free-market."
President Obama's press conference yesterday was another, in a long list of, missed opportunities to bridge the growing political divide in America which is ripping us apart. If you pay careful attention to the words Mr. Obama uses, and the context in which he uses them, you will notice a consistent, and troubling, pattern. Mr. Obama rarely uses any data or evidence when he talks about the economy and taxes and he carefully, and deliberately, uses terms which are impossible to define. He does this because he is employing a marketing technique, to sell to Americans, economic policies which are failing us.
For example, President Obama uses terms such as "fair-share" when talking about taxes without discussing what exactly that means. What is a "fair-share?" Is there a number he can provide us to assist us in managing our finances? Is there evidence that his tax rate number actually generates growth and tax revenue? He avoids all of these “complexities” because he isn't really interested in growth. But, he is interested in control of your money and, when you are ideologically committed to state-control of a free economy, you use slick marketing to separate people, from their hard-earned money.
Here's another example; did you ever notice that when President Obama discusses the economy and growth, he always discusses them in terms of what he will "allow" and "not allow?" "Allow?" What kind of country have we morphed into where American's economic prosperity and security are held hostage to the ideology of one man? We are not a monarchy; yet.
Sadly, the administration is lording over the transformation of a once free economy into a state-controlled, economic monster. In this new economy, friends and donors to the politically-connected class move directly to the front of the line for government-approved "credit" in the form of tax-payer subsidies and they write their own regulations to ensure that their competitors are buried in red-tape.
These regulations are being put into place to bankrupt ideological enemies of the President and his crony faux-capitalist friends (i.e. coal, derivatives markets, the petroleum industry), with zero regard for the millions of lives negatively impacted by the administration's ongoing assault on economic liberty. These regulations double-down on economic destruction by bankrupting small businesses, not connected to the political cocktail-party-class, who are unable to handle the massive legal fees associated with complying with the thousands of pages of red-tape, regulatory measures slapped on their backs as they are trying to get up from the near knockout-punch the recession delivered to them.
Finally, I need to address a counter argument which many of the President's supporters are using in a bait-and-switch tactic. It goes something like this, "The President is doing a great job! The stock market is up, fuel costs are down, and the economy is adding jobs." While these statements are factually correct, they completely ignore the role of the President's policy initiatives.
First, the stock market is up in spite of the President's policies, and here's the evidence. American businesses are doing quite well, but not here. Much of their bottom-line growth is coming from overseas sales and the cutbacks on expenses such as labor. In other words, many of these companies, due to our corporate tax rate, which is the highest in the industrialized world, are leaving us to stay profitable in a globally competitive market. If we refuse to fix this problem, both outsourcing and off-shoring will continue and American employees will suffer.
Second, fuel costs are down because petroleum-extraction technology has enabled us to tap into our, once-hidden, wealth of oil and gas. We are floating on petroleum wealth here in the United States and this is driving down fuel prices. But, and this is crucial, this is happening on PRIVATE land, not PUBLIC land. The President is actively standing in the way of us responsibly developing a limited subset of public land, and the hidden wealth underneath. That the President takes credit for the decrease in gas prices, despite his numerous attempts to block bi-partisan energy-development plans (i.e. Keystone, ANWAR, continental-shelf exploration), is utterly outrageous. If he would just get out of the way, gas prices would be likely be dramatically lower.
Third, although we are adding jobs, we are doing slow at the SLOWEST rate of any economic recovery in modern times. In the eight years of both the Reagan and Clinton administrations, they were both in office while the economy created over 15 million jobs. For President Obama to leave office with the same results the economy would have to generate 10 million MORE JOBS in his final two years alone.
In conclusion, Mr. Obama's state-controlled "capitalism" model is an abysmal failure that has only succeeded in increasing the paper-wealth of America's crony faux-capitalists. Surely, many of you remember the real economic recoveries of the Reagan and Clinton years where your neighbor and you both had smiles on your faces. The only people smiling now are the jokers who made big investments in expensive Washington DC cocktail parties to cater to the elected oligarchs who get to pick who wins and, tragically, who loses in our new government-controlled "free-market."
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