With the economy in shambles and his campaign sound bites and early interviews as president coming back to haunt him, President Obama has ramped up the class warfare rhetoric. Let’s put the lie to these strategies.
Jon Corzine
The latest news on the economy is not encouraging: a mere 39,000 jobs added and the unemployment creeps ever closer to 10% at 9.8%. In spite of this, or apparently ignorant of it, the lame duck House voted yesterday for another whopping tax increase on the most productive among us. Yes, yes, they will beat the class warfare drums about tax “cuts” for the rich, when what they are voting on is not a cut at all, but either leaving things the way they are or raising taxes. With the recovery barely showing a pulse, it is not the time to take money out of the hands of free market capitalists and put it in the hands of the government. Who do you think can pull the economy out of the doldrums, entrepreneurs or government bureaucrats?
Democrats think they have a winner. They want to lather on some more financial regulations because regulators dropped the ball on enforcing what already exists. So as conservatives point out that what they are proposing is unnecessary or won’t work, they can gleefully say, “Republicans are for the fat cats, while we’re for the little guy.”
Broken Regulations
Harry Markopolos recognized within “minutes” that Bernie Madoff was a fraud. He took his case to the SEC and was promptly ignored. He took it to Forbes magazine…not interested. Bernie Madoff himself was surprised how long it took to be found out.
So what does the SEC do now? It initiates a case against Goldman Sachs where professionals on both sides of a transaction knew what they were getting into. One side bet on housing prices continuing to rise, the other betting the bubble would burst. The decision on pursuing this was voted 3-2, with three Democrats voting in favor of pursuing the case, and two Republicans voting against. It must be the Democrats looking out for the little guys and the Republicans looking out for evil Wall Street, right?
John Paulson is the investor who allegedly played unfairly by being able to choose the securities that went into the investment that Goldman Sachs allegedly didn’t disclose to the other party. Mr. Paulson hasn’t been charged with anything. Mr. Paulson also contributed $30,400 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee last June. If you recall Jon Corzine, former Democratic Senator and Governor of New Jersey, used to be the chairman of Goldman Sachs. The new head of the SEC enforcement division in the Obama Administration, Adam Storch, is a former Goldman Sachs Vice President. So who’s in bed with Wall Street?
Democrats Need a Diversion
With almost every measure of public opinion on government appointment sinking to all time lows, the Democrats need to ramp up the class warfare machine to find anything that will gain traction with the public. They know they can’t fight on the facts so they have to start the fog machine. Typical Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals stuff.
Conservatives must focus the debate on the issues and not shrink from the fight. It is far too easy to show that Big Government (Obama) and Big Business (GE, et al) are really partners in dividing up the spoils amongst themselves and telling the rest of us how to live our lives.
Remembering Reagan
Ronald Reagan famously said that the statists believe:
“If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
There is currently no more telling example of this than Senator Chuck Schumer bloviating about Spirit Air Lines charging passengers for carry on baggage. He wants to introduce legislation prohibiting this. Hey, Chuck, if you don’t like Spirit charging you for your carryon bags, pick another airline! That’s how markets work. But the genius that is Washington is, NO we have to regulate that! So the idiots would pass a law prohibiting charging for carryon bags and the airlines will respond by raising ALL ticket prices to compensate. So instead of my having a choice of carrying a bag on board or saving the money, or choosing another airline altogether, the government will make everything equal and more expensive.
So, Chuck, how are you and your pals doing as far as growing the economy and getting the unemployment rate down? Maybe you should spend some time on that, no?
