Monday, June 27, 2011

Boo! Corporate Cronyism AND De-Development! Scared Yet?

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By John Sykes

 

I suspect this news story, Obama Will 'Co-Invest' Tax Dollars in Corporate-Government Partnership, will get little media coverage and blog comment.

In his weekly address released Saturday, President Barack Obama called for a campaign of "nation building here at home," citing as an example of what is needed to rebuild the American economy an initiative he announed Friday to "invest" tax dollars in what he called a "partnership" between the federal government and an initial group of 11 major corporations.

The administration's corporate partners in this venture include Caterpiller, Corning, Dow Chemical, Ford, Honeywell, Intel, Johnson and Johnson, Allegheny Technologies, Stryker and Proctor and Gamble.

This effort also includes several universities in the non-competitive +$500 Million dole.

What’s scary is that Obama is once again picking winners without any competitive input. In the old days, pre-Obamunism, government money was mostly received after a competitive bidding process open to most, thereby attempting to avoid corporate cronyism. That process is an anathema to Obama who would much rather make sure he knows who he can buy his political future from.

What’s even scarier is John Holdren’s involvement in recommending this as co-chair of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST). Mr. Holdren is famous for, among many other progressive shibboleths, the policy of de-development.

Resources must be diverted from frivolous and wasteful uses in overdeveloped countries to filling the genuine needs of underdeveloped countries," Holdren and his co-authors wrote. "This effort must be largely political, especially with regard to our overexploitation of world resources, but the campaign should be strongly supplemented by legal and boycott action against polluters and others whose activities damage the environment. The need for de-development presents our economists with a major challenge. They must design a stable, low-consumption economy in which there is a much more equitable distribution of wealth than in the present one. Redistribution of wealth both within and among nations is absolutely essential, if a decent life is to be provided for every human being.

imageIt’s not often we get this obvious an example of where Obama has us headed and how he will do it. Forget representation or legislative input. He can get most of what he wants by executive action. Obama would force us to suffer the legal battles to follow and the whims of an increasingly liberal judicial system.

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