By Ron Hart, Boca Grande, FL
“Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.” —Winston Churchill
Our economy will recover. It always does. Every recession we have ever had in our 235-year history has resulted in an upturn. Obama has already started to crow about some signs that business is picking up -- in a recession made worse by his opportunistic policies.
But the real damage done by his taking control of our major banks and car companies (and now 1/6th of our economy with his health care grab), is that private capitalism, one of the great drivers of our country’s abundance for all of us, has been harmed. Obama’s business understanding seems limited to having played Monopoly; he thinks if he gets all the properties on the board using our taxpayer-funded debt, he wins.
Because Obama’s government minions have inserted themselves into business, more deals must go through the greasy fingers of Washington, D.C., to get done. I call it “Crony Capitolism” because, unless you are connected politically, you cannot achieve your business objectives.
Examples abound, but the most recent two tell the story.
While opposing offshore drilling at home, the Obama administration found $2 billion of US Export Import Bank money for a Brazilian oil company for drilling off Brazil’s coast. Why? Leading Democrat donor and pseudo-Bond villain George Soros owned a large position in the Petrobras Oil Company. I can envision Soros stroking his hairless cat and saying “exxccceellent.”
Can you say “payback”?
Then there is Rahm Emanuel, who has set up his brother, Zeke, in a plum job to remake health care in Obama’s image. His nine fingerprints are all over it, dishing out jobs to friends.
And the thugs are on the march.
When some Wall Street firms wanted to pay back TARP money, the government sounded like a loan shark intimidating customers and telling them they could not. And even if they did pay the money back, legislators would still tell them what to do and who can be paid how much. All the while, Obama is jetting to Europe, Martha’s Vineyard, Hawaii and the like, renting estates, flying his wife to New York City for “date night” — conspicuously consuming without batting an eye while lecturing CEO’s on “not getting it.”
Government is taking more money than pimps muscle from their “sub-contractors,” and we are all out there turning tricks for them.
In light of all this, my concern is that the most enduring damage Obama and the left are doing to our country is vilifying capitalism and chasing it away. Entrepreneurs and capitalism have never been so maligned.
After recovering from the last downturn in our economy (under the peanut version of Obama, Jimmy Carter), Southwest Airlines, FedEx, Microsoft, Apple, Gentech, Charles Schwab, Oracle and Home Depot were founded by optimistic entrepreneurs. They made billions for themselves, made millionaires out of more than 100,000 workers, employed millions of people and paid billions of dollars in taxes. I do not see that happening now with Obama’s policies.
Obama intimidates and calls out executives out in a populist manner, and ruins people he does not like. As with AARP, the AMA and drug companies with their Obama-Care bill, his thugs either buy you off with taxpayer money or threaten you if you oppose them. Most companies cannot be bought, nor can they be intimidated, but when you combine the two, most will cave.
This is Chicago politics at its finest. No wonder Oprah is leaving town. The result, per “Forbes Magazine,” is that we are losing ground to foreign competitors.
Korean automaker Hyundai registered record sales in August. Chinese telecom manufacturer Huawei might soon pass Cisco in sales. Brazil’s jet maker Embraer is, according to Cessna CEO Jack Pelton “scaring us to death.” And more IPOs are happening away from America’s overly regulated capital markets. In addition, India has heart bypass surgery outcomes equal to the U.S. at half the cost, and Singapore is willing to pay U.S. biotech research stars about $715,000 in annual salaries.
We do not have a monopoly on capitalism. We risk losing out to a world market that moves faster and with more resolve today than ever before. Our new political class does not seem to care that innovation and capitalism are fleeing our shores.
At least a pimp protects his hookers, which is yet another economic reality that escapes this administration.
Editor's Note - Ron Hart has been called a "southern libertarian version of PJ O'Rourke." His columns have appeared in Reason, and are regularly syndicated to over 30 newspapers around the Nation. We're proud to welcome Ron to the Libertarian Republican family. We will be carrying his editorials on a regular basis.
Two-term Democrat Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson wants a major tax boost before his time is up. 
