Forum Post: Crony Socialism Is Still With Us
Posted 11 years ago on Aug. 22, 2012, 10:11 p.m. EST by vitvitvit
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Crony Socialism Is Still With Us
Posted 08/20/2012, Investor's Business Daily
Corruption: It didn't take long after President Obama was elected in 2008 for the first signs of crony capitalism to emerge. And as time's gone by, conditions haven't improved. If anything, the problem is growing worse.
This much is clear: Democrats who controlled Congress and the White House used the $700 billion TARP program and the $860 billion stimulus as a giant ATM to pay back favored constituencies, at the expense of the rest of us.
We thought the problem, once observed, would disappear. After all, who would want his or her name associated with something as disreputable as crony capitalism?
And yet, it hasn't gone away. In recent weeks, more revelations show just how corrupt our now-permanent "stimulus" culture is:
• Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid has fought on behalf of a Chinese-owned energy company, ENN Mojave Energy LLC, to build a billion-dollar solar energy plant in Nevada as part of the Obama White House "green jobs" campaign. Only problem, Reid's son Rory is one of the attorneys representing ENN Mojave.
• Joe Hynansky, a friend and contributor to both Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama, won a loan of up to $20 million backed by the U.S. government to build a luxury foreign auto dealership in . . . Ukraine. Stimulus? Hardly. Hynansky's family has donated more than $64,000 to both Obama's and Biden's various political campaigns.
• A new book, "Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob America Blind," makes the startling claim that a key aim of ObamaCare is to unionize 21 million health-care workers — giving the dying U.S. labor movement a shot in the arm. Any surprise organized labor has given Obama and other Dems hundreds of millions of dollars in the last decade?
Past examples abound. They range from the corruption surrounding government loans to Solyndra and other politically connected "green energy" firms that squandered billions of dollars of taxpayer money, to the billions of "stimulus" paid out to states to bolster unionized state employees' benefits and pay. That's money spent not to build bridges, roads and ports, or to "stimulate" anything other than bureaucrats.
As the Hoover Institution's Peter Schweitzer documented recently, members of Obama's campaign finance committee, his campaign bundlers and major Democratic donors received $16.4 billion of the $20.5 billion in loans and grants doled out under "green stimulus" programs run by Obama's Energy Department.
This is crony corruption, pure and simple.
As we've said before in many different contexts, it's impossible to imagine a Republican administration or Congress having so many conflicts of interest, payoffs and out-and-out examples of crony capitalism without a steady drumbeat of indignant stories in the media followed by a massive government investigation.
You have to have priorities, we guess. At least the FBI is looking into a real scandal: the rumor that Republican politicians went skinny-dipping in the Sea of Galilee on a trip to Israel last year. We hope they get to the bottom of that, so to speak, soon.
http://news.investors.com/article/622863/201208201902/crony-socialism-still-with-us.htm
So Enron's CEO, Kenneth lay, does not qualify as a crony Capitalist, or the people who made millions off of the Harding administration. Just because a term is coined recently, does not mean the actions are only observable in that recent time. I'll make the argument that Republicanism plus Capitalism equals crony Capitalism. It always has; it always will.
The fact that you can believe that cronyism is something new shows just how under the influence of propaganda you really were. All the great industrialists and bankers of the past were nothing more than government cronies.
I guess an argument could be made that when government coddles the industrialists it is called Capitalism, and when the industrialists are compelled by the government it is called cronyism. Oh yeah, all the recipients of profits off of medicare part D, crony capitalists.
Wha????
Obama propping up Solyndra, General Electric (maker of Wind Turbines), Chevy, Fisker and hundreds of other enterprises and this is "Republicanism"?
What f'n planet do you live on?
Where the hell did the $800 Billion ARRA stimulus go, huh? That's the equivalent of $2,500 for EVERY person in the United States. I see nothing for all that money! Where did it go?
This doesn't seem like a Republican thing to me.
Wow, my little ill informed country man, you illustrate the reason why we can never have anything new in this nation. I have to vote against your naivete; therefore, i'm not given a chance to vote for a third party.
Keep believing your mythology that the hard working entrepreneur is the American standard-bearer, even as their wealth is garnered by corporate welfare.
Also, GE has been getting corporate welfare longer than Obama has been in office. You need to recognize...
By the way, You need to get off the internet, after all, you don't want to be seen using a socialistic product. do you ?
When any president makes it to the high office, he helps out those who got him there. That's just the nature of our system so stop politicizing a systemic problem.
"politicizing a systemic problem" ?
WHO blamed this on Republicanism? You.
GE what? Wasn't he all about CHANGE? Obama is pushing corporate welfare at lightning speed.
Stop making excuses and rationalizing for the failure-in-chief. He's great with a teleprompter and that's about it.
It's interesting you mention Solyndra. There was a news report on CNN tonight about a company called Sunrise Solar Inc who makes solar roof top vents.
Everything being used in this product is made in the USA except the Solar Panels. - he had no other choice but to buy them from China.
Meanwhile he looked near and far in this country to find a company that would make them and found one - but they discontinued making them for him because his orders weren't big enough - dollar wise.
In the meantime, the Obama Adminstration in order to stop China from importing Solar Panels into the USA put a "import tax" on all Solar Panels coming into this country.
As a result this company wil have to pay approximately $250.00 per panel because of the import tax.
So, the ower wrote to the Obama Adminstration seeking help and explained his problem. The Obama Administration wrote back saying that they would help him out.
Since then, the Feds have contacted Sunrise Solar demanding thousands of dollars from him for the solar panel purchases he made from China.
They are giving him a month to come up with the money. He stated tonight that he in all likelyhood will close down his business.
This is another example of how the Obama Administration looks out for the small businssmen in this country - his plan is to destroy them.
It is the small businesses that provide the jobs and grow the economy - and people wonder why the economy sucks - this is one of thousands of reasons why.
All the wind turbines are being made in China also.
Jeff Immelt sits in the White House as Obama's chief economic advisor and runs General Electric over to China.
Hope & Change really isn't working out, is it?
Here's the link to the story about Sunrise Solar inc wanting help from the Obama Administration:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/22/politics/obama-solar-poster-boy/index.html
That was a good article. It highlighted unintended consequences of government policies nicely.
Sadly, it also highlights how easy "niche market" loopholes are created.
Any how i enjoyed the article.
No surprise. It's the Chicago way. Pay to play.
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