Instead of working to grow our economy, President Obama is waging an assault on free enterprise.
It’s a two-front attack: bashing the private sector on the one hand, while engaging in crony capitalism on the other. Both are bad for the economy and frustrating to voters. Moreover, they reveal the president’s true priorities.
Bashing the Private Sector
To distract from the president’s disappointing record, Team Obama has decided to base their entire campaign on attacking the private sector and Mitt Romney’s career as a successful businessman.
“This is what this campaign is going to be about,” President Obama said on Monday, referring to his attacks on Governor Romney.
But those attacks are backfiring, revealing just how unreasonable they are.
Even Democrats recognize Obama’s distortions and have defended the Romney record.
· Newark Mayor Cory Booker: “If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record, they’ve done a lot to support business, to grow businesses.”
· Virginia Senator Mark Warner: “Bain Capital was a very successful business.”
· Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell: “I think [the attacks] are very disappointing.”
· Former Obama Advisor and Car Czar Steven Rattner: “I don’t think there’s anything Bain Capital did that they need to be embarrassed about.”
· Former Congressman Harold Ford, Jr.: “Private equity is a good thing in many, many instances.”
Now, his campaign staff find themselves pathetically tongued-tied trying to defend blatant falsehoods.
President Obama, of course, has no experience in the private sector, so perhaps that’s why he’s so willing to attack those that do.
His hostility to free enterprise has informed his policy decisions. From blocking the Keystone Pipeline to allowing the EPA to handcuff job creators, President Obama has made it harder for the private sector to hire new workers at a time when 23 million Americans are struggling to find work
Crony Capitalism
Beginning with the stimulus, Obama has repeatedly inserted the government into the free market for political reasons—and with disastrous results. Solyndra is the poster-child of such politically-motivated reckless behavior, but just this week, reporters exposed yet another example.
Tuesday, the Washington Free Beacon broke this story:
“New disclosures show that one of President Obama’s bundlers is the wife of an executive at an energy company that received a more-than-$1.2 billion Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee for a solar power plant.”
This is hardly the first time Obama has played fast and loose with taxpayer money to the benefit of his supporters. Obama’s many insider deals through the Department of Energy are well documented. His administration has funneled billions of dollars to companies with ties to his top political donors. Some went bankrupt like Solyndra, which took over half a billion dollars and laid off over 1,000 employees. Others, like Fisker Automotive, took the money and created jobs overseas.
When government gets into the business of picking winners and losers, we all lose—especially when it’s done for Obama’s political purposes.
In 2008, then-Senator Obama declared, “We're going to have to change the culture in Washington so that lobbyists and special interests aren't driving the process.” Promise broken.
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Sadly, Obama shows no sign of backing off these attacks on free enterprise, however misguided. So, what’s next? Rolling out the red carpet for the Castro regime?
Oh wait, he already did that.