President Obama has demonstrated, as much as he would like to deny it, a strong anti-business sentiment. He has acted in ways that remind one of a Castro or Chavez in that he is doing it in the name of the people against the greedy profiteers.
General Motors and Chrysler were bled dry by union contracts. Management is culpable for agreeing to those contracts so they don’t get a pass in my view. But government also piled on with CAFÉ mileage requirements that forced the auto companies to build cars at a loss (because of the union contracts) to meet this standard. In the midst of the financial crisis the auto companies were running out of cash. The Obama administration, rather than let them go into bankruptcy, muscles in and turns over major ownership stakes in GM and Chrysler to the unions who are loyal supporters of the Democrat Party, rather than pay bondholders who were entitled to be paid first.
The housing bubble was driven by government policies going back years. The stated goals of the Clinton administration was to increase home ownership to as many people as possible. When the bubble burst, the Obama administration forced TARP money on healthy banks who neither needed it nor wanted it. The reason was to avoid showing who the real basket case banks were. But these banks were forced by their government to take the money and then the Obama administration created a pay czar to make sure any company that took TARP money, voluntarily or not, could not pay their executives more than Team Obama said they could.
Lax regulation on the Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico permitted BP to take short cuts that led to disaster. President Obama is put in an embarrassing position, so he cranks up the Public Relations machine to throw maximum ire upon BP. He then tries to be a hero by shaking down BP for $20 billion. BP has never said they would not pay. BP waived the limit on damages that was set by, you guessed it, the government and has steadfastly said they would make things right. But President Obama wanted to look like he was actually doing something and by taking $20 billion and putting it under his control it might look like he was. I agree with many that President Obama did not cause the leak in the Gulf any more than Bush created Hurricane Katrina, but if, as Obama likes to say, the buck stops here, then he is responsible for the lax enforcement by his administration that could have prevented it.
To create jobs this administration created a $787 billion bailout package that did next to nothing to create real jobs. It was pork to be paid to union members such as teachers, contractors, and not to grow the economy and create sustainable jobs.
If a business that is solidly behind the Obama agenda, like General Electric who owns the NBC and MSNBC cheerleaders, and wants to be a key player in the cap and trade exchanges, this President will treat them kindly. But if you are an independent business trying to grow, you will be taxed to your eye sockets.
We pride ourselves on being a nation of laws not a nation of men, but since this President has taken office he has a view that he is above the law and can do whatever he feels he needs to do. It was somewhat surreal to have Congressman Joe Barton, apologize to BP for the shakedown. No one owes BP an apology but I understand Congressman Barton’s distaste for the administrations boorish behavior. No one has the right to demand another’s property without due process of law, and that’s what happened. Perhaps Tony Heywood should be fired for going along with it.
Let’s keep this in mind. We need BP to continue to be a viable profitable company, so that every last claim can be paid. If this administration succeeds in driving BP into the ground, guess who will be next in line to pick up the tab? That’s right, gentle readers, you and me; the American taxpayers.
