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
MarkV
March 8th, 2013
6:09 pm
Interest expense, % GDP:
Reagan, 12/31 1988: 4.2%
Bush, 12/31/2008: 3.1% (range 2.7 – 3.5%)
Obama, 12/31/2009: 2.7%
12/31/2010: 2.8%
12/31/2012: 3.0%:
@@
March 8th, 2013
6:09 pm
Is the media gonna go after Jesse like they went after Rodman?
As I recall they didn’t attack Moore, Penn or Carter for singing the praises of their preferred dictators.
I’m thinking it’s a racial thingy. The MSM is racist?
schnirt
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 8th, 2013
6:12 pm
Our President Reagan added $1.9 trillion to the debt in eight years.
Obozo added $6 trillion in four years.
It costs Americans three times as much to pay interest on Obozo’s debt as it does to pay Our President Reagan’s. And it will be much, much worse after Obozo finishes screwing things up for four more years.
Obozo: Inferior to Reagan.
Georgia
March 8th, 2013
6:12 pm
zzzzz Yeah, corporate welfare state with nannies and everything. Yeah. Important issue. (for morons).
Adm. Hal Gehman (ret), former chairman of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) is speaking live about why the Columbia blew up. Cspan. It’s ten years later. He just said that the engines were never used or needed because the shuttle was a glider, and those engines added 75K pounds of weight and led to the design flaws that made it so vulnerable. Wings were added when the DOD wanted the shuttle to be used to capture satellite spy photos (actual wet film) from the satellites and then land at the launch site with the spy photos, and not once was the shuttle ever used for that purpose. The wings and the engines were there because of politics, stupidity, history and the the fact that most people are morons, (his words not mine).
He also said that they knew they couldn’t build the shuttle that wouldn’t explode on launch or reentry but it was better than building nothing. They knew it wasn’t technically possible. Especially with those engines and wings. Engineers with unlimited time and money will build nothing, because they would always improve it and never finish it. So budget cuts forced the design that evolved. A momentum orbiter space ship with wings and landing gear and engines. None of which were necessary or logical. the only safe orbiter is a capsule. as they knew, but….during the Nixon era, there were lots of Buck Rogers………the new orbiter is totally amazing and safe. Check it out.
Un-f’ing-believable!
Politico
March 8th, 2013
6:13 pm
@@
While I think it is stupid for those guys to hang with dictators, the US government (regardless of who is POTUS) loves them as well. Just as long as they are on the payroll.
F. Sinkwich
March 8th, 2013
6:16 pm
“House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) said today that the government must cut spending, and then explained that: “Tax cuts are spending.””
Huh?
Can one of you lib ilks please explain what this ditz, your leader and brain trust, means by by this idiotic statement?
You can’t?
Go figure.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 8th, 2013
6:18 pm
I guess since the only tax cuts that remain are the middle class kind, Pelosi is finally admitting that a government of the size she dreams of will need to raise taxes on them as well.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 8th, 2013
6:25 pm
US postpones award for Egyptian woman after anti-Semitic tweets surface
The Obama administration pulled back on plans to give an award to an Egyptian activist after anti-American and anti-Semitic messages were discovered on her Twitter account. Samira Ibrahim was supposed to be honored Friday by first lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry.
In July of last year, after five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed in a bombing, a tweet on her account said: “An explosion on a bus carrying Israelis in Burgas airport in Bulgaria on the Black Sea. Today is a very sweet day with a lot of very sweet news.”
As a mob was attacking the United States embassy in Cairo on Sept. 11 of last year, pulling down the American flag and raising the flag of Al Qaeda, a tweet on her account said: “Today is the anniversary of 9/11. May every year come with America burning.” The tweet was deleted a couple of hours later, but not before a screen shot was saved by an Egyptian activist.
In other posts, she declared Saudi Arabia’s royal family “dirtier than Jews” and attributed all crimes against society to Jews and referenced Adolf Hitler.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/07/us-postpones-award-for-egyptian-woman-over-anti-semitic-tweets/#ixzz2MzepIyvL
—————————
Back in the good ol’ days, the mainstream media would have been happy to help out Obozo and Moochelle and spike this story.
We won’t go back, America hating progs.
Finn McCool (the system isn't broken; it's fixed)
March 8th, 2013
6:27 pm
There exists no shame, whatsoever, among lib ilks.
let’s see, Chavez moved his country out from under the thumb of another country (us). I would call that a damn hero to his people.
F. Sinkwich
March 8th, 2013
6:33 pm
“let’s see, Chavez moved his country out from under the thumb of another country (us). I would call that a damn hero to his people.”
Finnie loves socialist commies who loves themselves Castro and such.
Who knew?
MarkV
March 8th, 2013
6:33 pm
F. Sinkwich @6:16 pm
“House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) said today that the government must cut spending, and then explained that: “Tax cuts are spending.””
“Can one of you lib ilks please explain what this ditz, your leader and brain trust, means by by this idiotic statement? You can’t?”
5:00 am March 7, 2013, Kyle Wingfield, quotingMacGuineas, head of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: “She also points to the $1 trillion in annual “tax expenditures,” subsidies hidden in the tax code rather than appropriations bills.“ Nobody looks at them,” she said. “These spending programs, dressed up as tax cuts…”
F. Sinkwich
March 8th, 2013
6:33 pm
Finnie is a typical O’bozo voter…
F. Sinkwich
March 8th, 2013
6:36 pm
Hey Mark, WTF was that? Some sort of quote thingy?
MarkV
March 8th, 2013
6:40 pm
F. Sinkwich @ 6:36 pm
“Hey Mark, WTF was that? Some sort of quote thingy?”
Perhaps even someone like you will understand, if you try hard enough.
getalife
March 8th, 2013
6:41 pm
The wealthy are getting a good return on investments with unlimited donations.
1 trillion in corporate welfare..
Heck of a job cons.
@@
March 8th, 2013
6:42 pm
Any woman of socialist leader will do.
Samira Ibrahim has alot in common with Chavez.
On Jan. 22, vandals broke into Tiferet Israel, a Sephardic synagogue only a mile from Chávez’s presidential palace in Caracas, trashing Torah scrolls and spray-painting the walls with threats of death for Jews and Israel.
While he lamented the synagogue attack in a one-line statement, for weeks beforehand Chavez had vociferously rallied his supporters to protest Israel’s war in Gaza, which he called a “genocidal holocaust against the Palestinian people.”
He also expelled Israel’s ambassador and demanded the presidents of Israel and the U.S. be prosecuted for mass murder. Immediately afterward, a pro-Chávez Web site called for boycotting Venezuela’s small Jewish community, expelling Jews from the country and launching protests against the Israeli embassy and Jewish synagogues.
Finn McCool (the system isn't broken; it's fixed)
March 8th, 2013
6:45 pm
Can one of you lib ilks please explain what this ditz, your leader and brain trust, means by by this idiotic statement?
evidently it is way over sandwich’s head. way, way over.
Hillbilly D
March 8th, 2013
6:47 pm
I suggest closing every golf course because they alter the environment, use a lot of water, and are expensive to keep going.
According to something I read in National Geographic, a couple years back, the average golf course has 9 times the chemical runoff per acre, as the average farm does.
Personally, I think if they really wanted to make golf challenging, they’d play with a green ball.
Politico
March 8th, 2013
6:48 pm
@@
How many synagogues are in Saudi Arabia? How many US business men are coddling that repressive regime for contracts at this very moment?
Call them all out or be the hypocrite you know yourself to be
With all the talk about Venezuela the US was still there top purchaser of oil? And oh my god, that was true under Bush as well……… heavens NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
getalife
March 8th, 2013
6:49 pm
Here is your hero serving the people :
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1027816/thumbs/s-BUSH-PAINTING-TEACHER-large300.jpg?7
getalife
March 8th, 2013
6:51 pm
“Personally, I think if they really wanted to make golf challenging, they’d play with a green ball.”
I can’t find the white ball in the woods.
I golf like Phelps.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 8th, 2013
6:53 pm
Corporate welfare alive and well in the Obama administration
————————
If it’s got the word “welfare” in it, Obozo’s all for it.
Politico
March 8th, 2013
6:54 pm
@@
For the record, Chavez was not good, but I call them all out.
A dictator in how they mistreat the population isn’t any better because they are paid off by Uncle Sugar.
Thulsa Doom
March 8th, 2013
7:05 pm
Hillbilly D.,
Makes sense about golf course runoff. I had a girlfriend years back who was a chemical sales rep. She sold a Lotta that stuff to golf courses.
Speaking of runoff and subsidizing big Bidness Kyle either forgot or didn’t have the space to mention the enormous runoff going into the mighty Miss. Its caused by a lot of that corn production to make more ethanol. In the gulf we have a big and growing bigger dead zone from oxygen depletion caused by all this runoff. Not cool.
F. Sinkwich
March 8th, 2013
7:09 pm
Ethanol = Solyndra
So O’bozo don’t care…
Thulsa Doom
March 8th, 2013
7:10 pm
Finn,
Chavez shut down opposition press, bullied and imprisoned people, and made himself a dictator. And you admire a thug like that? That’s just sad.
Bruno
March 8th, 2013
7:10 pm
If any of you Libs really think universal health care is some kind of panacea, check out what’s happening in Japan:
http://www.examiner.com/article/25-hospitals-turn-man-down-36-times-japan-before-he-dies-at-26th-hospital
From the article:
“On Tuesday, Japanese officials disclosed that in January, a 75-year-old man died after he was turned away from 25 different hospitals, 36 times over a two hour period “Japan Daily Press” reported on March 6. The ambulance that was transporting him was turned away because the emergency rooms declared that there were no beds or doctors available, and they were not able to provide treatment to the man.”
Bruno
March 8th, 2013
7:15 pm
Doom–Didn’t know if you heard the Jimi Hendrix tune that was just released earlier this year. Personally, I think he deserves the “Greatest Ever” label he is given.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-THhwh5mNI
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 8th, 2013
7:17 pm
The liberals will see the 75 and over age group as a cost cutting opportunity. obozo said he was gonna cut costs, remember?
Well, at least until they turn 75, anyway.
Thulsa Doom
March 8th, 2013
7:17 pm
Markv,
You need some help with your understanding of statistical analysis. Interest expenses were higher under Reagan and w because interest rates were higher. Duh!
Bruno
March 8th, 2013
7:19 pm
Watch the closeups of Jimi’s hands working his guitar. The agility of his fingers is surreal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Doi07ewYDhc
Thulsa Doom
March 8th, 2013
7:20 pm
Bruno,
I jokingly call jimi Hendrix the 2nd greatest black that ever lived behind mlk of course.
Thulsa Doom
March 8th, 2013
7:22 pm
I’m stuck in traffic as a passenger. Makes me think of Jimis crosstown traffic tune.
MarkV
March 8th, 2013
7:24 pm
Thulsa Doom @7:17 pm
“You need some help with your understanding of statistical analysis. Interest expenses were higher under Reagan and w because interest rates were higher. Duh!”
Thank you for that “valuable information,” even though completely irrelevant.
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
March 8th, 2013
7:28 pm
Bruno he was probably old and needed to die, like that 87 year old in CA that died because no one wanted to risk their job to save her life.
Chavez was so good to all those poor folk, according to the Lib intelligencia and Jesse Jackson, SR. He only stole 2 B and hid it in offshore accounts. If he was mean to the poor he would have stolen 3 Billion. Socialist seem to expect that however, seems there is always a ruling elite with special privileges, like being able to order assignations, enrich their friends, and skim money off the top, and then there are the cheering masses, who revel in their equality of squalor.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 8th, 2013
7:28 pm
Good Hart General Store Owner Jim Sutherland says this sight is not a new one, but he says it has been many years since he has seen one this big.
“This year we have been fortunate enough to have cold weather, lots of wind, and combined it builds ice into ice caves, ice mountains,” Sutherland said.
A giant island of ice on Lake Michigan, that apparently hasn’t gotten word of global “warming” yet.
Oh, I forgot, this was caused by global “warming.”
Never mind.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 8th, 2013
7:29 pm
“the emergency rooms declared that there were no beds or doctors available”
—————–
Go ahead and don’t believe the law of supply and demand. Supply and demand don’t give a crap.
Bruno
March 8th, 2013
7:29 pm
I jokingly call jimi Hendrix the 2nd greatest black that ever lived behind mlk of course.
In some ways, folks like Jimi Hendrix did more to bring people together than the Civil Rights leaders ever did IMHO. Ditto for Charley Pride over on the country music side, and for comedians like Bill Cosby and Flip Wilson.
Bruno
March 8th, 2013
7:32 pm
I’m stuck in traffic as a passenger. Makes me think of Jimis crosstown traffic tune.
This is a great traffic song also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFi94V3jIUg
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
March 8th, 2013
7:35 pm
Thulsa, I don’t think Libs know much about finance, they seem to always point out how Reagan and Bush doubled or tripled the deficit.
If they understood simple compound interest they would realize that 4% of a Trillion, is no where near as much as 2% of 16T, even taking into inflation on those dollars.
If I triple my savings from $1.00 to $3.00 I haven’t done as well as you if you increase your 1 Million dollar trust fund by only 2%. The reverse is true on the debt. The harm grows inversely worse as the deficit grows, but these silly people just like to talk about % of growth.
Bruno
March 8th, 2013
7:35 pm
Socialist seem to expect that however, seems there is always a ruling elite with special privileges
Has anyone added up how much Obama has blown on trips and golf outings since he’s been President?? He’s gotta be setting some kind of record.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 8th, 2013
7:40 pm
Has anyone added up how much Obama has blown on trips and golf outings
———————-
About 150 laid-off government workers worth.
Bruno
March 8th, 2013
7:45 pm
The Libs like to trump up the fact that Bush spent a lot of time at his ranch while President, but I have to believe that he was probably working a full schedule most of the time. The Obamas do love their trips to Hawaii though:
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2013/01/04/taxpayer-bill-obamas-hawaii-vacations-20-million/
saywhat?
March 8th, 2013
7:46 pm
Bruno and lil barry- your wealth envy is showing.
Bruno
March 8th, 2013
7:47 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IriEq4H1XSU
bluecoat
March 8th, 2013
7:48 pm
Well adjusted for inflation probably less than you think.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 8th, 2013
7:48 pm
Whose wealth did I envy, saywhat?
Bruno
March 8th, 2013
7:48 pm
Bruno and lil barry- your wealth envy is showing.
You’re damn right that I’m envious of anyone who can take a bunch of lavish vacations. Right now I’m stuck working 6 days per week until we can hire some additional help.
bluecoat
March 8th, 2013
7:52 pm
100 mill.soldiers including the clay…totally ignored……
Bruno
March 8th, 2013
7:57 pm
I can’t help about the shape I’m in
I can’t sing, I ain’t pretty and my legs are thin
But don’t ask me what I think of you
I might not give the answer that you want me to
Oh well
Now, when I talked to God I knew he’d understand
He said, “Stick by me and I’ll be your guiding hand
But don’t ask me what I think of you
I might not give the answer that you want me to”
Oh well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNsFVoLzNsc