Corporate welfare alive and well in the Obama administration
Who is happiest with President Obama’s nominees to head the EPA (Gina McCarthy) and the Energy Department (Ernest Moniz)? As Tim Carney explains, it’s neither environmentalists on the left nor free marketeers on the right, but the lobby groups that seek as many beneficial — for their corporate members — government subsidies and mandates as possible:
Although Obama regularly talks about ending “corporate welfare,” battling the “special interests” and creating a “level playing field,” he has steadfastly supported government favors for the ethanol industry — favors that increase costs for drivers, taxpayers, ranchers and grocery shoppers.
The Solar Energy Industries Association also applauded Obama’s nomination of McCarthy and Moniz. Solar companies profit from a production tax credit that Obama recently fought to extend, and a plethora of stimulus subsidies such as loan guarantees, tax credits and grants.
Check who’s investing big in solar energy, and you’ll notice a lot of politically connected names, such as Al Gore, Warren Buffett and Vinod Khosla.
And this is not a new thing for the president, Carney notes:
Obama never has been anti-business. His stimulus amounted to billions in corporate subsidies. His health care bill is a boon to hospitals and drug-makers. He was the most important supporter of Bush’s bailout outside the Bush administration in 2008.
Carney’s right. Obama isn’t anti-business. He’s anti-markets.
As I have written before, both liberals and conservatives need to recognize the nexus of Big Government and Big Business is more problematic than either one on its own. Democrats and Republicans both have a bad tendency to scold the industries they don’t like while protecting the ones they do.
Big Green Energy is one industry the Democrats definitely like. As Carney puts it, the idea is: “Politicians and bureaucrats tell business what to do, and business gets to make a profit doing it.”
But only the biggest businesses benefit from that arrangement: Only they can afford the lobbyists who help shape the legislation and absorb the costs the legislation foists on them. The upside for them is they become further entrenched in their markets, keeping smaller competitors at bay and, in some cases, virtually guaranteeing themselves profits. That builds up a lot of economic sclerosis over time, and it’s one reason America has lost some of its competitive edge.
The good news is that our economy is still dynamic enough — as opposed to, say, many of those in continental Europe — to overcome that sclerosis if we start to unwind that Big Government/Big Business relationship. Obama’s nominees for EPA and Energy suggest that won’t be happening in the next four years. The GOP would do well to spend that time changing its own M.O.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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615 comments Add your comment
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 10th, 2013
8:06 am
indigo: Aesop said she “loved to see America burning”.
——————–
She did. What’s your point?
We know what Moochelle Obozo’s point was–she wanted to give the anti-American jew-hater a big award, until she got caught.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 10th, 2013
8:08 am
indigo: President Bush changed it so he could proudly tell Americans…
——————-
Thanks for reminding us what BDS looks like.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 10th, 2013
8:08 am
It wasn’t until World War I that daylight savings were realized on a grand scale. Germany was the first state to adopt the time changes, to reduce artificial lighting and thereby save coal for the war effort.
It figures.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 10th, 2013
8:11 am
The first time I felt good about America and didn’t want to blow it up was when this Fat Body gave me a reward. But I still hate the J-E-W-S.
Yours truly, Ibrihiam.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 10th, 2013
8:12 am
indigo’s link says Bush’s change saves Americans energy.
Oopsies!
indigo
March 10th, 2013
8:19 am
Barry
Please show me the link where she actually said that.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 10th, 2013
8:22 am
I already did. Last night.
indigo
March 10th, 2013
8:25 am
Barry – 8:12
Those with skills in reading comprehension will see that any energy savings are problematic, at best.
Unfortunately, you are totally lacking in any reading comprehension skills.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 10th, 2013
8:27 am
You should have just claimed that your account was hacked.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 10th, 2013
8:30 am
No comment from indigo on Moochelle’s hero, the America-hating anti-Semite?
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 10th, 2013
8:40 am
From your own article, stooge -
In an October 2008 daylight saving time report to Congress, mandated by the same 2005 energy act that extended daylight saving time, the U.S. Department of Energy asserted that springing forward does save energy.
Extended daylight saving time saved 1.3 terawatt hours of electricity. That figure suggests that daylight saving time reduces annual U.S. electricity consumption by 0.03 percent and overall energy consumption by 0.02 percent.
While those percentages seem small, they could represent significant savings because of the nation’s enormous total energy use.
@@
March 10th, 2013
9:01 am
Looks like a little buyers remorse is setting in.
And Ed Begley, Jr. thinks Obama should “die in his boots” fighting against global warming.
Oh the drama.
Georgia
March 10th, 2013
9:07 am
You have to admire Political Insider’s Jim Galloway for not suffering any fools on his blog. The same fools that torture this blog go over there and get totally deleted. Soon all the blogs will share the same discretionary oversight and the last vestiges of trolling will end up wrapped up in fish wrap.
The violations of the terms of agreement on this blog are so perversely profound that decorum prohibits my enunciating them. If , however, the unkempt mob who have ruined editorial opinion blogs for the entire city of Atlanta are somehow exempt from the disqualifying criteria that have cleaned up the other blogs, then an injustice so egregious in it’s blatant disregard for the common good will exist, and thus cry out for a new supervising uber-cybercop to scare away the thugs, bullies and trolls (oh my) and not let the cowardly lie on.
Wait, I’m not finished. I have something important to add. I’m going to say something good! Something good, and nobody better miscomprehend it, cause it’s good.
I wanna say something good, and I wont be done then either, cause I’ll think of something more good…
something good.
indigo
March 10th, 2013
9:32 am
Aesop
My first post was clearly to complicated for you to understand.
Try this one.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2013/0308/Daylight-saving-time-Can-springing-ahead-save-energy-or-money
indigo
March 10th, 2013
9:35 am
Barry – 8:22
I don’t see it.
JamVet
March 10th, 2013
9:37 am
A quick, one-off observation…
Georgia is dead on; this blog is a basically a fool’s paradise. It is often dominated by a small handful of uncivil (to the point of *repeated* bannings on other forums), uninformed and uninteresting far right wing fanatics, whose opinions, stated as facts, are as often as not, laced with malicious personal insults and eight grade English.
And they know who they are. (As chances are very high that they will inevitably and vehemently flame this post.)
As for Kyle’s well-penned observation, I am mildly surprised that a Republican actually has the chutzpah to write those two words together.
At least the phrase corporate welfare is beginning to trickle down (he he) into the neoliberal’s collective consciousness. And that is a start. Though the next 11 steps may be harder. (grin)
Toodles, and say a Sunday morning prayer for me…
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
March 10th, 2013
9:38 am
“You have to admire Political Insider’s Jim Galloway for not suffering any fools on his blog. The same fools that torture this blog go over there and get totally deleted. Soon all the blogs will share the same discretionary oversight and the last vestiges of trolling will end up wrapped up in fish wrap. ”
Says the poster who just violated at least two of Kyle’s rules in the above post.
Looking forward to your self-deletion, Georgia, since you’re so into the rules and all . . . .
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 10th, 2013
9:39 am
Georgia
March 5th, 2013
8:52 pm
You are the sphincter that opens to allow passage of a volume of waste matter, okay? You are reactionary organ-grinding monkeys. You are like skid marks on three day old underwear…your wives’ plan B is that you all could achieve at least a portion of a human being that maybe would equal a signing gorilla with a 900 word vocabulary. You are the waste of an unfiltered sewage system. You’re just trash. Eat Sheet and Dye…ESAD!
Georgia
March 10th, 2013
9:07 am
You have to admire Political Insider’s Jim Galloway for not suffering any fools on his blog. The same fools that torture this blog go over there and get totally deleted. Soon all the blogs will share the same discretionary oversight and the last vestiges of trolling will end up wrapped up in fish wrap.
————————
One thing is not like the other.
Just a little compary/contrast for ya.
bluecoat
March 10th, 2013
9:47 am
7:24 am Whither on the vine.Typical the self proclaimed genius starts and ends the day with his gross stupidity.His brain has withered-no it’s never been big enough to shrivel up.
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
March 10th, 2013
10:08 am
Jamvet returns to jeer the regulars and disparage the tone of the blog. Note how his previous self imposed disappearance from the blog, resulted in Kyle being able to allow the blog to stay up on weekends and evenings, kinda ironic. Nothing like a reformed smoker to bring the intensity to the smoking debate, or in this case a reformed blogger.
breckenridge
March 10th, 2013
10:10 am
Lil’ Obozo Phone since it’s Sunday I would like to ask you a question regarding the Sabbath and the beliefs of the republican base.
Which of these do you think is the most authentic?
A. All-star wrestling
B. Faith healing (see Benny Hinn)
C. The Gospel of Prosperity – the idea that if you give some shyster money every Sunday eventually God will reward you with massive wealth.
I have to go with all-star wrestling because, although it’s not genuine, those guys do get banged up. Whereas B and C are just plain nonsense.
MarkV
March 10th, 2013
10:14 am
It is a pity Dusty missed the blog last night; she would have been in heaven. With only a few exceptions, an almost perfect conservative echo chamber.
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
March 10th, 2013
10:14 am
Karzai accuses the US of working with the Taliban today. I hope we work with them, one time when we finally leave, and let them know where they can find him.
@@
March 10th, 2013
10:38 am
@ JamVet
March 10th, 2013
9:37 am
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
schnirt
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 10th, 2013
10:48 am
Jamvet returns to jeer the regulars and disparage the tone of the blog. Note how his previous self imposed disappearance from the blog, resulted in Kyle being able to allow the blog to stay up on weekends and evenings, kinda ironic. Nothing like a reformed smoker to bring the intensity to the smoking debate, or in this case a reformed blogger.
Not only that, I don’t even bother to check and see what’s being said over at kookman’s, mostly because the last time I looked it was 24/7 finncheesy. You wanna talk about a bubble? That one doesn’t even have any air in it.
Now contrast what I just said to jammieswet, who not only monitors this blog all day and all night, he reports back to them what’s being said here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYOwJ5gVnLA
Know what I mean?
Dusty
March 10th, 2013
11:04 am
MarkV
I take no responsibility for what others write here. The junk posted here could have washed up from Japan as far as I am concerned. The liberal posts far outjunk the conservatives in their insults. Neither is worth reading. The blog is now floating on over aged debris!
Speaking of reading, I read Follett’s “Code to Zero” last night. . Fairly good writing, lotsa research on rockets, impossible situations, fair amount of suspense but too much hexy sexy to keep readers buying his books. I would give him about two stars out of four.
But I give four stars to the chicken dish I enjoyed last night at our favorite restaurant. OH, that fluffy pastry, a pure cuisine cloud! Just wanted to mention something GOOD here.
bigbill
March 10th, 2013
11:10 am
Corporate welfare is alive and well in Atlanta, too. $200 Million of taxpayer funds to be transferred to a private, forprofit entrepeneur and his for-profit business-the Atlanta Falcons!
Dusty
March 10th, 2013
11:26 am
Yes, bigbill
I don’t quite understand how so many people were against a new stadium yet all it took was the mayor of Atlanta to say we want it. If the AJC was doing its job, we would know exactly all the steps that led to financing a for-profit business with partial taxes.
Maybe they did (like Kyle) but it seemed to be a byline of disinterest. .
Maybe they asked the president how he gave funds to so many profit making companies that never made a profit later. There seems to be an age old procedure for turning taxes into profit/nonprofit for someone else with the excuse for “pie in the sky” later. .
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 10th, 2013
11:35 am
Just for indigo, who has trouble finding posts she doesn’t want to read:
“Today is the anniversary of 9/11. May every year come with America burning.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/07/us-postpones-award-for-egyptian-woman-over-anti-semitic-tweets/#ixzz2N60Rd6Ip
bluecoat
March 10th, 2013
11:57 am
Dusty Do you think anyone cares what you read or eat.How you rate books or food.Floating with over aged debris….How interesting……….
MarkV
March 10th, 2013
12:30 pm
Dusty @ 11:04 am
Dusty,
When you write “I take no responsibility for what others write here,” I want to say that I never suggested you did. But several times you implied that the blog was for conservatives, which I reject, but which was the reason for what I wrote earlier. Other than that, I heartily agree with your assessment of the blog, if not with your view of who outjunks who.
I will have to think if I have read Follett’s “Code to Zero,” certainly not lately. While some of his thrillers are first rate, others are not. If you have not read his “The Pillars of the Earth,” however, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is quite different. As for the Century trilogy I mentioned, it is also good and different, in other ways, as a very wide tale of personal histories on the background of events from WWI to cold war (so far, the first two books I read).
getalife
March 10th, 2013
12:44 pm
200 million for something you do not need is called waste.
Give the 200 million back to the taxpayers instead.
Where are the fiscal cons?
MarkV
March 10th, 2013
12:54 pm
bluecoat @ 11:57 am
“Dusty Do you think anyone cares what you read or eat.How you rate books or food.”
As a matter of fact I do. And you are under no obligation to do the same. I wonder if you also complain about other people making this blog a personal music site virtually every evening?
Hillbilly D
March 10th, 2013
12:55 pm
If the AJC was doing its job,
Arthur is on the board of Cox Enterprises.
http://www.corporatereport.com/cox2008/board.html
Daylight Savings Time:
It makes about as much sense as cutting a foot off of a blanket and sewing it on the other end to make your blanket longer. Put the clock one way or the other and leave it the hell alone.
Dusty
March 10th, 2013
1:03 pm
Dear MarkV
I suggest this is a blog known as Kyle Wingield’s blog because the introduction is written by Kyle Wingfield and is described as “political commentary from AJC by a 30-something conservative.”
That might give you a clue as to why I indicated this is a conservative blog. You know the old line;. “If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it might be a duck”
That doesn’t mean only contributors to the blog have to be conservative. It only suggests that the originator of the blog theme is conservative.
R U TRYING TO PICK A FIGHT on this nice peaceful Sunday?
I also have Follett’s WHITEOUT to read. Seems it has something to do with laboratory error. WHAT? Laboratories don’t make errors!!!! Balderdash!! I’ll check this one out for its gross errors! . .
Dusty
March 10th, 2013
1:10 pm
bluecoat
Do you know that I don’t care who cares if I carefully write about what happens to be what I care about at the moment?
Blogs are like baloney. Cheap but sometimes fitfully filling for dismal digestion.
Dusty
March 10th, 2013
1:16 pm
Well, thank you, MarkV, for your kind words. Now I shall have to be sweet and nice for a change.
Awww, there’s no justice!!
MarkV
March 10th, 2013
1:17 pm
Dusty,
In my view you are sadly mistaken, and I also think it would be appropriate for Kyle to respond to your belief that there is Jay’s “liberal blog,” and Kyle’s “conservative blog.” My understanding, which Kyle can correct, is that there are those two (among others) AJC/Opinion blogs, one managed by a liberal – Jay Bookman, the other by a conservative – Kyle Wingfield. But I have not seen any rule about either of the blogs being reserved exclusively for comments with the same slant as the leading article.
As a matter of fact, I believe that there is more value in comments challenging the thoughts in the leading article, than in those approving them, even though that does not diminish the value of comments that expand the original thoughts, and are subject to further challenges. But what purpose would be in turning the blog into a conservative echo chamber, as it happens sometime, or a place where partisan of one thought try to outdo each other in their devotion and attack on the other side?
Bruno
March 10th, 2013
1:19 pm
Dusty–Since you’re such a good cook, I thought I would share my recipe for brusells sprouts with you. Take one container of freshly picked brusells sprouts, open it up, then dump it in the trash while simultaneously ordering a nice tasty pizza from Papa John’s.
indigo
March 10th, 2013
1:20 pm
Barry – 11:35
She has been accused of making a number of anti-American and anti-Sematic remarks.
These charges are now being investigated
Nothing, one way or another, is known for certain yet
Maybe we should wait for clear and certain evidence BEFORE we pass judgement, don’t you agree?
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 10th, 2013
1:21 pm
Oh well, since Kyle won’t help me out, I’ll just do it myself -
“While the Obama administration deserves praise for the important work it has done to build a platform for open government in its first term, the job is unfinished,” according to the report.
http://static1.grsites.com/archive/sounds/comic/comic002.wav
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
March 10th, 2013
1:23 pm
Nothing good ever came of a meal which included brussel sprouts.
Just sayin’!
Dusty
March 10th, 2013
1:30 pm
HillBilly,
I saw the picture. There’s Arthur as big as life on the AJC board. . Why don’t we make him mayor of Atlanta? MIght as well. Might be a good idea. I bet things would get better and Atlanta might even make a PROFIT!!
I don’t mean to belitle the great contributions Blank has made to Atlanta. He is one civic minded citizen.. I just wish he’d listen to the lowly citizens once and a while (even if that is NOT the way to make the most profitable decisions.)
DAYLIGHT SAYINGS? A pox upon it! The sun came up same as usual and I did too, only I was LATE and hadn’t saved a thing. So it goes.
Hillbilly D
March 10th, 2013
1:31 pm
Did everybody remember to set their smoke alarms an hour forward and change the batteries in their clocks?
Hillbilly D
March 10th, 2013
1:34 pm
Bruno’s brussel sprout recipe reminds me of the old recipe for cooking carp.
Preheat a pan of grease, liberally apply lard to two pine boards and place the carp between them. Put the boards and the carp into the pan and fry for 30-35 minutes. Take out and let cool, then take the carp out from between the pine boards and eat the boards and throw the carp out for the possums.
Dusty
March 10th, 2013
1:36 pm
Bruno
ME a good cook? A delusion I just love. Anyway, you missed one step in your brussel sprouts recipe. You must always burn them in the saucepan before dumping them. Gives the house an unforgetable aroma.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 10th, 2013
1:40 pm
OK, indigo, I waited. Now the issue is settled. Moochelle Obozo got caught trying to honor a fellow America-hating Jew-basher:
“Finally, Ibrahim herself has spoken, writing in Arabic on her Twitter page. Egyptian democracy activist Mina Rezkalla provides the translation: “I refuse to apologize to the Zionist lobby in America regarding my previous anti-Zionist statements under pressure from American government therefore they withdrew the award.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/samira-ibrahim-speaks_706609.html
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 10th, 2013
1:42 pm
Properly prepared, brussels sprouts are delicioso.
getalife
March 10th, 2013
1:42 pm
Cheap wine and Burger King is Dusty’s idea of a good meal.
As most cons have cut and ran from the blogs (their hypocrisy only goes so far), we now talk about sports, music,cooking and growing.
Nothing wrong with that as partisanship has lost it’s mojo.
getalife
March 10th, 2013
1:45 pm
” Moochelle Obozo”
This is an obvious sign of Obamas Derangement Syndrome.