Category Archives: Corporatism

2016, Clinton, Corporatism, Elite Media, Gangsta Govt, Obama, True Talking Points, Uncategorized

Hillary Clinton Steered Government Contracts to Chelsea’s “Friend”

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There are hundreds of examples of just this kind of corruption with the Clinton’s. Why won’t their voters wake up?

Bill Gertz:

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought to arrange Pentagon and State Department consulting contracts for her daughter’s friend, prompting concerns of federal ethics rules violations.

Clinton in 2009 arranged meetings between Jacqueline Newmyer Deal, a friend of Chelsea Clinton and head of the defense consulting group Long Term Strategy Group, with Pentagon officials that involved contracting discussions, according to emails from Clinton’s private server made public recently by the State Department. Clinton also tried to help Deal win a contract for consulting work with the State Department’s director of policy planning, according to the emails.

Deal is a close friend of Chelsea Clinton, who is vice chair of the Clinton Foundation. Emails between the two were included among the thousands recovered from a private email server used by the secretary of state between 2009 and 2013. Chelsea Clinton has described Deal as her best friend. Both Clintons attended Deal’s 2011 wedding.

Government cronyism, or the use of senior positions to help family friends, is not illegal. However, the practice appears to violate federal ethics rules that prohibit partiality, or creating the appearance of conflicts of interest.

Specifically, the Code of Federal Ethics states that government employees “shall act impartially and not give preferential treatment to any private organization or individual.” Pentagon ethics guidelines also call for avoiding actions that would create even the appearance of improper behavior or conflicts of interest.

 

2016, Clinton, Corporatism, Pay to Play, Uncategorized

Hillary Blasts Well Fargo, but Guess Who It Donates to Most?

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You guessed it…

Grabien:

Hillary Clinton blasted Wells Fargo Monday over the scandal that led to thousands of employees being terminated for collecting fees on fake accounts.

Clinton, however, is now being revealed as Wells Fargo’s top recipient of campaign donations, outpacing the next presidential candidate — Jeb Bush — by more than 300 percent. In all, Wells Fargo has contributed $258,351 to Clinton’s campaign.

The second highest recipient is Bernie Sanders’ Senate campaign, which collected $61,043.

Of the latest scandal, Clinton said it shows that, “Eight years after a cowboy culture on Wall Street wrecked our economy, we are still seeing powerful bankers playing fast and loose with the law.”

“It is outrageous,” she said.

Embed/download this news clip

 

Clinton, Corporatism, Obama, Pay to Play, Russia, Treason, True Talking Points, Uncategorized

THERE IS NO DEFENSE – HILLARY’S MISUSE OF HER POSITION AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT FOR PAY FOR PLAY SCHEMES

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By Jeff Capella

RUSSIA

For a more complete understanding of Hillary’s connection to Russia as well as how Hillary misused her position as secretary of state for pay for play schemes feel free to read this report by the government accountability institute (1). One of the major Russian front originations involved in Hillary’s pay for play schemes is outlined in the declassified intelligence assessment by United States European Command that exposed skolkovo innovation center as a front for the Russian military and Russian intelligence. (2) Such assessment was further corroborated by a waring issue from the FBI Boston office regarding skolkovo innovation center (3). Indeed during the time where the potential sale of a uranium mine which underwrites United States nuclear deterrence was being discussed within the United States government and Hillary Clinton was secretary of state an increasing Russian owned and operated company paid 500,000 $ to the Clinton foundation (4).

NORTH KOREA

In 2010 Hillary’s state department knew and approved of Syracuse university organizational and operational ties to North Korean’s nuclear program (5). Indeed at that time former Clinton undersecretary of defense Dr Wallerstein was the dean of Maxwell school (6). In 2013 ABC outed Bill Clinton reached out to Hillary’s state department with request to approve for invitations to / paid speeches for North Korea (7).

IRAN

From 2006 – 2009 the Clinton foundation received numerous annual donations from Alevi Foundation. For example in 2005 Alavi Foundation gave 30,000 dollar donation to the Clinton Foundation (8). On Dec. 19, 2008 Alavi foundation donated between $25,000 and $50,000 to the William J. Clinton Foundation (9). This would be two years AFTER Alavi Foundation was designated a terrorist entity by the FBI on Oct 25 2007. In 2008 Alavi foundation was busted by the treasury department and the FBI as being a front organization for the mullah regime in Iran as well as engaging in money laundering actives for Iran’s terrorist activities (10). Even after Alavi was prosecuted and convicted of being a front for terrorist organizations the Clinton’s refused to turn the money over to the FBI (11).

End Notes / Cited Sources

* https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/21/the-clinton-foundation-has-become-a-clear-liability-as-bill-clinton-mounts-his-big-defense/

1. http://www.g-a-i.org/u/2016/08/Report-Skolkvovo-08012016.pdf

2. http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/Collaborati…/…/Skolkovo.pdf

3. http://www.bizjournals.com/…/fbis-boston-office-warns-busin…

4. http://www.nytimes.com/…/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-…

5. http://www.syracuse.com/…/north_korean_nuclear_envoy_to.html “U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the envoy was coming at the Maxwell School’s invitation for three days next week to attend “track two,” or unofficial discussions the school is sponsoring, starting Wednesday.”

6. http://news.syr.edu/mitchel-wallerstein-baruch-college/ “From 1993-97, Wallerstein was deputy assistant secretary of defense for counter-proliferation policy and senior defense representative for trade security policy in the U.S. Defense Department. He was nominated as the first presidential appointee in this position and was responsible for the development and implementation of U.S.”

7. http://abcnews.go.com/…/bill-clinton-sought-state-de…/story…

8. http://www.guidestar.org/…/345/2006-237345978-02d06414-F.pdf (Page 72)

9. http://www.forbes.com/…/alavi-foundation-clinton-oped-cx_re…

10. https://www.treasury.gov/press…/press-releases/…/hp1330.aspx

https://archives.fbi.gov/…/manhattan-u.s.-attorney-announce…

11. http://freebeacon.com/…/clintons-refused-to-return-money-f…/

2016, Clinton, Corporatism, Dirty Tricks, Uncategorized

Hillary Clinton Gave State Department Appointments to 194 Donors

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Washington Examiner:

Hillary Clinton placed dozens of her donors on State Department advisory boards between 2009 and 2012, federal records show.

The former secretary of state’s agency appointed 194 donors who had given either to her family’s foundation, her political campaigns, or both, or were affiliated with groups that had.

Those donors represented nearly 40 percent of the 511 advisory appointments the State Department made during Clinton’s tenure.

 

Clinton, Communications Theory, Corporatism, Education, Uncategorized

Clinton’s Get Millions From World’s Biggest Sharia Law Education Firm

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Like Hillary is going to lead any positive education reforms….

If people only knew how corrupt the education cartel is…..

Via the Daily Caller:

Former President Bill Clinton collected $5.6 million in fees from GEMS Education, a Dubai-based company that teaches Sharia Law through its network of more than 100 schools in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation.

The company’s finances strictly adhere to “Sharia Finance,” which includes giving “zakat,” a religious tax of which one-eighth of the proceeds is dedicated to funding Islamic jihad.

The company also contributed millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation.

His biggest paycheck from the closely-held company — which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands — was in 2014 when he pocketed $2.1 million. It is unclear if Bill received income from the Middle Eastern firm in 2015, since Hillary has not yet released her tax return for that year.

 

Border, Corporatism, Obama, Treason, True Talking Points

26 Republicans Vote Against House Effort To Defund Obama’s Executive Amnesty For Illegal Aliens

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This is the influence of pressure groups and the influence of certain interests who want the cheapest labor possible no matter how many Americans go without jobs.

Mathew Boyle at Breitbart News:

A whopping 26 Republicans joined the Democrats in Congress to vote against an amendment to the DHS funding bill sponsored by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). That amendment aims to block funds for President Obama’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), largely believed to be the root cause of the border crisis last summer.

Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) was the first Republican to break ranks. “Ellmers is [the] first GOP no vote,” Politico’s Seung Min Kim Tweeted as the vote began.

The other Republicans who voted against the measure, which passed, are: Reps. Mark Amodei (R-NV), Mike Coffman (R-CO), Ryan Costello (R-PA), Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), Jeff Denham (R-CA), Charlie Dent (R-PA), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Bob Dold (R-IL), Chris Gibson (R-NY), Richard Hanna (R-NY), Joe Heck (R-NV), Crescent Hardy (R-NV), John Katko (R-NY), Tom MacArthur (R-NJ), Peter King (R-NY), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Martha McSally (R-AZ), Pat Meehan (R-PA), Devin Nunes (R-CA), Dave Reichert (R-WA), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chris Smith (R-NJ), Fred Upton (R-MI), and David Valadao (R-CA).

Blackburn described her amendment as something that cuts off the magnet for future illegal immigration by Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC’s) to the United States.

“Last year, I had the opportunity to visit an unaccompanied alien children (UAC) facility at Fort Sill and also traveled to the southern border where I was briefed by U.S. Border Patrol agents,” Blackburn said. “These visits confirmed what we have known all along — DACA is the magnet drawing Central American children here. UAC’s believe they will receive amnesty, as those before them have.”

Ellmers has had a checkered past with immigration, and was nearly defeated by low-profile primary challenger Frank Roche last year. He had little money, having raised only $23,000 total through mid-April 2014 (just a few weeks before the primary). Ellmers had raised nearly a million dollars by that point. Nonetheless, Roche got 15,045 votes to Ellmers’ 21,412 votes—impressive for a massively underfunded candidate.

During that timeframe leading up that primary, Ellmers stumbled many times—including getting into a live on-air altercation with nationally syndicated radio host Laura Ingraham.

During that March 2014 interview, Ellmers melted down live on air under fire from calm but insistent questioning from Ingraham on amnesty. Ellmers called Ingraham “small minded,” “ignorant,” and at one point even adopted the third person to say “Renee Ellmers thinks for herself” when Ingraham pressed her on why she was using talking points that the National Council of La Raza first developed.

When asked on Wednesday to explain her vote against Blackburn’s amendment—she actually voted for a similar amendment from Blackburn this past summer, meaning this appears to be a change of position on that issue for her—and her vote against the amendment from Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL) that aims to block funding for Obama’s November 2014 executive amnesty, Ellmers’ spokesperson provided Breitbart News with a lengthy statement from the congresswoman.

In it, Ellmers makes the case for amnesty for illegal aliens because she claims there is a shortage of American workers who can do jobs in her district. But first she began by stating she’s opposed to the president’s action—even though she voted against fighting him.

Continue reading HERE.

2012 Primary, 2016, Corporatism, Cruz, Editorial, Mitt Romney, True Talking Points

Romney Presidential Aspirations Fall Flat with GOP Lawmakers

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The 2016 nominee has to be new blood. Voters are not buying that the same people who have been in and out of government for decades are suddenly going to reform it.

Romney 2016 feel the excitementRomney, hoping that the K Street crowd, who is scared to death of ethical reformers like Ted Cruz, would rally to him, leaked that he wants to run for the purpose of stopping Ted Cruz and he did Newt Gingrich.

Talk about running for the wrong reasons. The American people are suffering and certain power players are treating the reigns of our country as if it their personal play thing, as if this is some sort of soap opera. 

The Hill:

Republican lawmakers aren’t jumping on the Mitt Romney 2016 bandwagon.

Even among his onetime allies, the news that the former Massachusetts governor is considering a third consecutive run for president is being met with criticism or cool indifference on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Romney’s congressional liaison for his 2012 run, said Tuesday he might support one of his Senate colleagues for president.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who backed Romney before the 2012 Iowa caucus, said he’s going to “wait and see.”

And another senator who spoke on background to offer a candid assessment of how Romney could affect the 2016 race offered a stark dismissal.

“What we know about Romney last time, he lost the election with working Americans,” said the conservative senator, who backed Romney in 2012. “[Among] those making $30,000 to $50,000, he lost it by 15 percent, and [those making] under $30,000 by 28 percent. You can’t win an election like that. And it can’t just be words. I’ll be looking for candidates who are authentic, who have credibility.”

Remember the problems with Mitt Romney in 2012:

1 – He smeared Newt Gingrich for starters in ads that were just plain dishonest. This cost Romney votes in North Florida among other areas. Millions of conservatives stayed home.

2 – He changed his views on illegal immigration and global warming depending on what group he was in front of.

3 – He trashed all the other 2012 candidates for not having perfectly conservative records when he had the least conservative record of them all.

4 – He let Obama paint him as a man who was responsible for the death of employees that had died after he left the company. These ads ran in OHIO for a month before Romney even responded. Losing Ohio alone will cost the election.

5 – His tax reform plan was the mildest proposal of all of the candidates.

6 – And then there were the debates….

 

Border, Corporatism, Dirty Tricks, Jobs, True Talking Points

Americans Lose More High-Tech Jobs: Rubio, Hatch, Flake Co-Sponsor Bill to Increase H-1B Guest Workers Visas

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This is not theory. This very writer has watched as tech companies fired hundreds of Americans and replace them with foreign workers who are flown in, crammed in tiny apartments, paid very little, and sent home when their time expires.

This is a big part of the reason why IT wages have stagnated and why so many Americans who graduate with hi-tech degrees are not finding work.

US News – STEM Grads Can’t Find Jobs

DML – Majority of IT Jobs Given to Immigrants

PBS – The Bogus High-tech Worker Shortage

Sen. Jeff Sessions: No Shortage of High-tech American Workers

There are law firms and companies that specialize in showing companies how to make it look like they are trying to hire Americans, but have no intention of doing so.

Breitbart News:

On Tuesday, three Republican Senators joined three Democrats to introduce legislation that would expand the number of guest-workers for the tech industry even though there is a surplus of American high-tech workers.

The Immigration Innovation (“I-Squared”) bill, introduced by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), would also enable companies to hire an unlimited number of workers with advanced degrees from U.S. institutions in science, technology, engineering and math, which critics have said would turn some universities into diploma factories for foreign students. Currently, the first 20,000 H-1B applications for those with advanced STEM degrees are exempted.

Hatch said he hoped the bill could be a gateway to “more progress” on a broader immigration bill.

“I’m calling on everyone — the President, members of both parties, and stakeholders in the tech community – to support this bill and help make it the first step towards real immigration reform,” he said in a statement. “We must find make concrete progress to solve some of the many critical problems facing our nation. I-Squared is an obvious solution to an undeniable need, and I want to work with everyone to get it done now.”

In addition to increasing the annual cap on H-1B visas from 65,000 to 115,000, the bill would reform student visas, “authorize employment for the dependent spouses of H-1B visas holders, and allow a grace period for foreign workers to “change jobs and not be out of status.” It would also, among other things, allow for the recapturing of green cards “that were approved by Congress in previous years but were not used” and dependents of employment-based immigrant visa recipients, U.S. STEM advance degree holders, “persons with extraordinary ability,” and “outstanding professors and researchers” would be exempt from cap on green cards.

The high-tech industry, like Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us lobbying group, has pushed for massive increases in guest-worker permits even though companies like Microsoft have been laying of thousands of U.S. tech workers. As Breitbart News has documented, “despite evidence to the contrary, the tech industry has spent millions trying to get massive increases in the number of H-1b guest-worker visas, claiming that they ‘can’t find’ Americans to do various tech jobs” even though there is a proven surplus of America high-tech workers.

House Republican leaders are expected to introduce similar legislation.

But as Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) noted in his immigration roadmap for the new Republican Congress, “a stunning 3 in 4 Americans with a STEM degree do not hold a job in a STEM field—that’s a pool of more than 11 million Americans with STEM qualifications who lack STEM employment.” In a chapter titled, “The Silicon Valley STEM Hoax,” Sessions cites Rutgers public policy professor Hal Salzman, who has calculated that 100% of new hires in the tech industry could be guest workers if Congress continues to increase the number of H-1B visas, which would hold “down wages for both them and new hires.”

 

Corporatism, Editorial, Gangsta Govt, History, Thugs, True Talking Points

Former Chief of Staff to Attorney General Ed Meese Says Bundy is Right – UPDATED!

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by Chuck Norton

UPDATE – Aside from the comment section below which has several links, videos and comments, Mark Levin went more in-depth into the BLM’s deliberate abuse of power, creating a legal quagmire to destroy the lives of ranchers, coal miners, small farmers, and commercial fisherman. Listen here:

UPDATE II – Fox News’ Sean Hannity reported today that the Chinese Solar plant Sen. Harry Reid broke ground on is not 213 miles from Clive Bundy’s ranch, it is 35 miles.

Bundy cow guns illegal alien

Mark Levin, famed lawyer, author, legal scholar, and former Chief of Staff to Attorney General Ed Meese says Cliven Bundy is right.

Levin explained in his April 11th broadcast how Bundy had agreements with the State of Nevada before the BLM claimed jurisdiction.

Mark Levin
Mark Levin

Originally Bundy and the other ranchers in the area cooperated with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). They negotiated water rights and grazing rights, building of roads and irrigation all with the approval of the state and BLM.

BLM was collecting fees from Bundy and the other ranchers in the area when BLM reneged on their earlier agreements [including agreements with Clark County H/T Michele Fiore]. BLM began a systematic and deliberate campaign to drive ranchers out of Southern Nevada. Levin said that while the BLM had granted itself the power to behave in such a way to make it “legal”,  BLM’s war on local ranchers is a deliberate abuse of power.

Among the tactics used by BLM was a mandate for “environmental” reasons that Bundy and the other ranchers in the area decrease their cattle herd to 150 head, which would put every rancher out of business and did, including 52 ranchers in Clark County alone, leaving Cliven Bundy the last rancher standing.

BLM demands that ranchers sign a contract agreeing to new terms before they take payment. While BLM was successful in driving every other rancher out Cliven Bundy refused to agree to the new terms, stopped paying BLM and a 20 year legal battle began, with Bundy not being able to afford attorney’s for a drawn out legal battle (so much for due process). [NOTE: Cliven Bundy’s English is so bad and so broken that he can barely manage to express himself.]

Another tactic that BLM engaged is was to declare much of the land off-limits because they said that the Desert Tortoise was endangered, while at the same time the population of Desert Tortoises was so abundant that the government initiated a program to hunt them.

Levin’s entire April 11th broadcast can be downloaded at the following link:

http://www.stationcaster.com/player_skinned.php?s=2591&c=10771&f=2667713

Late on April 11th,  bloggers searching public documents discovered that Nevada Senator Harry Reid, whose former long-term aid now directs BLM, has been negotiating a deal with a Chinese energy firm to build a $5 billion solar energy facility on the land near the Bundy Ranch. Harry Reid’s son represents the Chinese firm looking to develop said land.

[NOTE: While the ground zero point of the Chinese Solar facility is 200 miles from the Bundy Ranch, it is within the area of the many dozens of ranchers the BLM has driven out in recent years as well as the associated public grazing land. Also water rights can easily be affected by such a large development 200 35 miles away (See Update II above). In any case, the overpopulated Desert Tortoise means that horses and cattle can’t graze, but a massive solar facility ….well that is great for the so-called “endangered” tortoise?]

After the news of Harry Reid’s involvement in plans to seize and develop these lands with the Chinese had begun to go viral on the internet, the following morning the BLM agreed to pull its 200 armed men out and return seized cattle to Cliven Bundy. At the time of this writing the BLM had not indicated if the arrival of nearly 2000 (many armed) citizens  was a factor in their motivation to stand down.

Bundy Ranch wow outnumbered

Editor’s Note:

Has the political class has taken lands in the West much the same way they stole the land from the Indians and slaughtered them? What politician ran on “I am going to seize control of 86% of Nevada”?

They did it by a thousand cuts, incrementalism, and before you know it they have taken control of 86% of the land for no other reason other than they got away with it.

This is the problem, the Congress over time has handed so much “regulatory” authority to the executive branch that they can make up and change “the law” as they go at a whim. We have witnessed the wholesale breakdown of separation of powers.

Is not civil disobedience, the First Amendment right to protest, parts of Article V, and the Second Amendment all checks against the deadly power of lawmaking under such circumstances?

It is important to keep in mind that one of the government’s tactics in takings cases is to drag out court proceedings and make your legal bills so high that you run out of money and give up, which is why Cliven Bundy represented himself in court. Can one honestly  say that Cliven Bundy got his due process in federal court with no legal team to help him?

2012 Primary, Alarmism, Breitbart is Here, Budget, China, Corporatism, Elite Media, Energy Policy, Lies, Obama, Treason, True Talking Points

Obama Gave Chinese Solar Producer Suntech $337 Million…Now Bankrupt

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With so many of these green energy boondoggles it looks like this – Obama hands over tax-dollars to a fund raiser who is an owner in a junk “green energy company”. Said owners pay themselves in a big way, give big money to Democrats and go out of business.

As of last November (2012) there were 50 such companies. Obama Administration emails released show how green energy money was steered to Obama cronies with sham, junk bond companies.

Christine Lakatos at Green Corruption:

A jaw-dropping revelation came to light in December 2011 by the Trib Total Media, yet it was ignored by the media and even missed by those of us watching the solar world unfold.

© SunTech via Treehugger.com

China’s major solar panel companies — whose low-cost products led some American factories to close, helped create the Solyndra controversy and spawned talk of a trade war — were bankrolled in the United States by the world’s largest investment banks.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, USB Investment Bank and others raised $6.5 billion for seven young Chinese solar panel makers in the mid-2000s by underwriting their securities on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, a Tribune-Review investigation has found.

The Trib goes on, “It’s not clear how the idea of using offshore tax havens to get listed on U.S. exchanges developed. But the Trib learned through SEC reports how Chinese solar companies grabbed onto the idea.” The first was Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd., now the world’s largest solar company. It began operating as a Chinese company in May 2002, and by 2004 reported sales of $85.3 million…”

However, Bloomberg News reported last week, “Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP) [was] forced to put its Chinese solar unit into bankruptcy last month, “becoming the latest casualty of a painful slump in the global solar industry,” wrote Townhall.com. But Bloomberg noted that Suntech “began that slide into insolvency in 2009 when customers linked to the founder couldn’t pay their bills and the company booked the sales as revenue anyway, regulatory filings show.”

What most don’t know is that Suntech is a tiny fraction of “Obamanomics Outsourced,” whereas his administration is responsible for steering billions in stimulus funds (and other “green” money) to foreign companies and shipping green jobs overseas. This is clearly a broken 2008 energy campaign promise, but worse, a violation on how the 2009 trillion-dollar stimulus package was sold –– to create jobs and grow the economy here in America.

Read more HERE.

Budget, Corporatism, Dirty Tricks, Gangsta Govt, Health Law, Obama, Pay to Play, Taxes, Treason, True Talking Points

Fed-Ex Founder: Govt regulations make it very difficult to start an industrial business today (video)

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And this is a fact, as of March 13, 2013 these are just the Obamacare regulations, over 20,000 pages (photo below). The tax code is over 60,000 pages.

Apple founder Steve Jobs, according to his book, told Obama that government has rendered it almost impossible for him to build a factory here in the United States, which is why he builds them in China. This very writer has a dear friend who runs a small business with less than ten employees. He tells me of the constant efforts by state and federal bureaucrats to put him out of business.

Obamacare regulations printed
Over 20,000 pages of Obamacare regulations as of March 2013. Courtesy Senator Mitch McConnell
Academic Misconduct, Civility, Communications Theory, Corporatism, Obama, True Talking Points

Socialist NY Teacher to Former Soviet Citizen: “Capitalism=Oppression, True Socialism Never Tried” (video)

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The “true socialism” argument  is what every would be tyrant (or useful idiot) says for the excuse of every human atrocity that has resulted from experiments in socialism and a state run economy.

Budget, Corporatism, Dirty Tricks, Editorial, Obama, Pay to Play, True Talking Points

Taxpayer gets soaked for billions at GM. What did we get for the bailout?

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So what did we get for government meddling in the GM/Chrysler reorganization?

1 – A union that hasn’t learned its lesson and now analysts predict it is just a matter of time before GM goes bankrupt again.

2 – Non union workers got screwed out of their retirement benefits deliberately and at the express direction of the White House

3 – Bond holders such as the Indiana employee retirement fund got screwed… in violation of the law and at the express direction of the White House.

4 – GM CEO Dan Ackerman brags on video that since the bailout 70% of GM  manufacturing is now outside of the United States. Ackerman also announced that GM’s  research and development division is moving to China.

5 – Chrysler/Jeep is expanding production…IN CHINA while taxpayer dollars are lost as in the GM bailout.

Now keep in mind that we were promised that the government would eventually make a profit in the deal just as we did when Reagan fixed the S&L crisis. We aren’t even getting cheaper cars out of the deal, unless of course you consider the government subsidized Chevy Volt that nobody wants and the taxpayers are took a shellacking on.

GM would have been fine if the government just stayed out of it, they would have reorganized with creditor protection form the courts just like every other company has who has gone through this process legitimately. Of course if that happened GM would have broke the over-reaching union who gives hundreds of millions in campaign money to Democrats. Anyone want a Twinkie?

The Weekly Standard:

The American taxpayers stand to lose billions as General Motors today announced a plan to buy back 40 percent of the company owned by the federal government.

“The Detroit automaker said it will purchase 200 million shares of GM stock held by Treasury for $5.5 billion — or $27.50 per share — nearly $2 above the stock’s closing price on Tuesday,” the Detriot News reports.

However, the break even price — the price that GM would need to pay for each share in order to pay back the money the government put in to the company —was $53 a share. That number has now risen dramatically.

“As a result of GM’s buy back, the government has recovered about $28.6 billion of its $49.5 billion GM bailout, which means it will most likely lose billions when selling its remaining shares,” MLive.com reports. “The government would need to sell its remaining shares at a price of $69.72 to break even. That’s up more than $15 from earlier this year, when the U.S. Treasury would have to sell its 500 million remaining shares at about $53 per share.”
The U.S. Treasury initially owned nearly 61 percent of GM as part of the auto bailout, which forced the automaker and crosstown rival Chrysler through a government-backed bankruptcy.

The Obama administration completely exited Chrysler last year after recovering $11.2 billion of its $12.5 billion bailout to the Auburn Hills-based automaker.

Corporatism, Dirty Tricks, Obama, Pay to Play, True Talking Points

Obama Administration buying vehicles at furious pace to prop up GM

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Corporatism and cronyism at work.

Breitbart News:

This week, Jeffrey Zeints, Deputy Director for Management of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner in which he pled for a huge chunk of cash, supposedly to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy. “As the impacted region addresses the damage caused by the hurricane,” he wrote, “the Administration believes additional Federal resources are necessary to fund response, recovery, and mitigation efforts.” All in all, the Obama administration asked for $60.4 billion. The letter stated, “the Administration proposes that controls be put in place to ensure that funds are used appropriately to protect against waste, fraud, and abuse.”

They don’t need another set of controls. The request itself is full of waste, fraud, and abuse. Zients’ proposal accompanied the letter. And, among other frivolous propositions, it requested tons of money … for cars. Yes, cars:

  • $300,000 to replace Secret Service law enforcement vehicles and other equipment;
  • $855,000 to replace Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles and other equipment;
  • $2.4 million to replace destroyed or damaged vehicles and other equipment for the Department of Homeland Security;
  • $20,000 for the Department of Justice to “repair and replace vehicles”;
  • $4 million to the FBI to “replace vehicles, laboratory and office equipment, and furniture damaged”;
  • Another $1 million for the Department of Justice to “repair or replace over 15 vehicles”;
  • $230,000 to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to replace three vehicles.”

Every appropriations bill these days includes a large cash request for vehicles. That might have something to do with the fact that the government now owns General Motors. No government in history has bought more civilian vehicles than this one. From 2005 to 2011, the Department of Justice, which has a grand total of 114,873 positions, grew its number of vehicles by 12 percent to 40,111. That’s one vehicle for every 2.9 employees. The Department of Homeland Security now has 56,534 vehicles, a 48 percent jump over 2005, to serve 240,000 employees – one vehicle for every 4.2 employees. If you took those cars and lined them up end-to-end, they’d stretch for 308 miles.

Corporatism, Gangsta Govt, Obama, Pay to Play, True Talking Points

Obama Admin proposes 68 regulations per day, 6,125 in 90 days

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And people wonder why jobs and wealth leave the country……

CNS News:

It’s Friday morning, and so far today, the Obama administration has posted 165 new regulations and notifications on its reguations.gov website.

In the past 90 days, it has posted 6,125 regulations and notices – an average of 68 a day.

The website allows visitors to find and comment on proposed regulations and related documents published by the U.S. federal government. “Help improve Federal regulations by submitting your comments,” the website says.

The thousands of entries run the gamut from meeting notifications to fee schedules to actual rules and proposed rule changes.

In recent days, for example, the EPA posted a proposed rule involving volatile organic compound emissions from architectural coatings: “We are approving a local rule that regulates these emission sources under the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act),” the proposed rule states. “We are taking comments on this proposal and plan to follow with a final action.”

Another proposed rule will provide guidance for FDA staff on “enforcement criteria for canned ackee, frozen ackee, and other ackee products that contain hypoglycin A.”  (Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica; unripened or inedible portions can be toxic.)

Some of the proposed regulations revise regulations already on the books.

The website also links to a video of a speech President Barack Obama gave at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 7, 2011, in which the president promised to remove “outdated and unnecessary regulations.”

“I’ve ordered a government-wide review, and if there are rules on the books that are needlessly stifling job creation and economic growth, we will fix them,” the president said.

A number of groups, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute, expect a rush of new regulations now that President Obama has won a second term:

CEI expects the EPA to move ahead on delayed rules on everything from greenhouse gas emissions to ozone standards.  “Rules from the health care bill and the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill will also likely make themselves known in the weeks to come,” the group said on its website.

2012 Primary, Corporatism, Econ, Jobs, Obama, Pay to Play, True Talking Points

Washington D.C. Tops List of Richest Cities….

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What’s wrong with that picture? All the stimulus, regulations, bailouts and other spending in the name of the poor and who gets rich?

CBS Local:

LANHAM, Md. (CBSDC) — The Washington region is well off financially.

The D.C. metro area sits atop The Wall Street Journal’s list of America’s richest cities.

D.C. area residents have a median household income of $86,680, well above the national average of $50,502.

The large salaries may be attributable to the nearly 47 percent of workers who hold college degrees, making Washington one of the most highly educated areas in the country.

The list also shows more adults in the area were able to find employment during a down economic time.  Just 5.8 percent of the workforce were unemployed in 2011.

Only 8.3 percent of Washington homes are living below the poverty line — the fifth lowest ranking in the country.

McAllen, Tex. is the country’s poorest city with a median income of $31,077.

Overall, the list shows a decline in the national median income for a second straight year and a seven percent decline since 2007.

2012 Primary, China, Corporatism, Obama, Pay to Play, Stuck on Stupid, Treason, True Talking Points

GM Brags: Since bailout 70% of our manufacturing outside of US. Announced GM R&D moving to China (video)

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This will make your stomach turn. Your bailout money goes to sponsor Chinese propaganda films sponsored by GM. You can watch a GM CEO Dan Ackerson brag that since the bailout 70% of GM’s manufacturing is outside of the USA. They also announced that much of GM’s R&D will move to China in part so as to give advanced technology to the Chinese Government.

Remember that according to far left university academic theory U.S. wealth is essentially “capitalist ill-gotten gains” and that our wealth needs to be transferred to the rest of the world.

2012 Primary, Corporatism, Dirty Tricks, Gangsta Govt, Obama, Pay to Play, True Talking Points

Stroke of Obama’s pen and an entire industry is eliminated

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Philip Morris does not like competition, even if it is small time boutique competition that really is no competition at all. In this case a big business and its lobbyists say “JUMP!” in an effort to stick it to a tiny small time competitor and the Congress and the President ask Philip-Morris “How high?” Don’t you wish that your Member of Congress was this responsive to you and our problems? This is why we need new leadership in BOTH parties. Prepare to be made ill by what you are about to read.

They say it is about tax revenues, suuuure, and Philip Morris paid big money to buy off politicians and engage in a massive lobbying effort because, you know, they just can’t stand to see the government maybe miss out on the statistically insignificant lower taxes from roll your own boutique tobacco? Gimme a break. What this is about is a big wealthy company snuffing out a tiny boutique one because the tiny one cannot afford a huge lobbying effort. Anyone who claims that “it’s about taxes” is insulting your intelligence.

There should be a concerted effort to see to it that Boehner is not re-elected Speaker.

Las Vegas Review Journal:

Roll-your-own cigarette operations to be snuffed out.

A tiny amendment buried in the federal transportation bill to be signed today by President Barack Obama will put operators of roll-your-own cigarette operations in Las Vegas and nationwide out of business at midnight.

Robert Weissen, with his brothers and other partners, own nine Sin City Cigarette Factory locations in Southern Nevada, including six in Las Vegas, and one in Hawaii. He said when the bill is signed their only choice is to turn off their 20 RYO Filling Station machines and lay off more than 40 employees.

“We’ll stay open for about another week to sell tubes and tobacco just to get through our inventory, but without the use of the RYO machines, we won’t be staying open,” he said.

The machines are used by customers who buy loose tobacco and paper tubes from the shop and then turn out a carton of finished cigarettes in as little as 10 minutes, often varying the blend to suit their taste. Savings are substantial – at $23 per carton, half the cost of a name-brand smoke – in part because loose tobacco is taxed at a lower rate.

“These cigarettes are different because there are benefits in saving money and in how they make you feel,” said Amy Hinds, a partner who operates the Sin City Cigarette Factory at Craig and Decatur.

“These cigarettes don’t have any of the chemicals in them, and the papers are chemical-free, unlike the cartons people buy from Philip Morris.”

But a few paragraphs added to the transportation bill changed the definition of a cigarette manufacturer to cover thousands of roll-your-own operations nationwide. The move, backed by major tobacco companies, is aimed at boosting tax revenues.

Faced with regulation costs that could run to hundreds of thousands of dollars, RYO machine owners nationwide are shutting down more than 1,000 of the $36,000 machines.

“I feel it’s kind of shaky,” Wiessen said. “The man who pushed for this bill is Sen. (Max) Baucus from Montana, and he received donations from Altria, a parent company of Philip Morris. Interestingly enough, there are also no RYO machines in the state of Montana. It really makes me question the morals and values of our elected speakers.”

Sierra Bawden, a single mom with two kids who started rolling her own smokes at Hind’s shop three months ago, said cost is only one factor.

“It saves me time and money, and in the end I feel better because I don’t get all of the chemicals that the other cigarettes have,” Bawden said. “With the brand-name cigarettes, we pay for the chemicals and the name, and I don’t want any of that, so I don’t even know what I’ll do when the shop closes down.”

2012 Primary, Corporatism, Dirty Tricks, Obama, True Talking Points

White House Connected GE Pays No Tax on $14 Billion ….Again!

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GE who owned MSNBC, has lucrative government contracts and whose CEO was appointed to a position in the White House utilized our 60,000 page tax code again, which is filled with cronyism and special favors.

The taxes Democrats propose to “soak the rich” always seem to miss those who they demagogue for not paying their fair share. They have been “soaking the rich” for decades and keep missing the target. Why? – LINK

The Weekly Standard:

General Electric, one of the largest corporations in America, filed a whopping 57,000-page federal tax return earlier this year but didn’t pay taxes on $14 billion in profits. The return, which was filed electronically, would have been 19 feet high if printed out and stacked.

GE

The fact that GE paid no taxes in 2010 was widely reported earlier this year, but the size of its tax return first came to light when House budget committee chairman Paul Ryan (R, Wisc.) made the case for corporate tax reform at a recent townhall meeting. “GE was able to utilize all of these various loopholes, all of these various deductions–it’s legal,” Ryan said. Nine billion dollars of GE’s profits came overseas, outside the jurisdiction of U.S. tax law. GE wasn’t taxed on $5 billion in U.S. profits because it utilized numerous deductions and tax credits, including tax breaks for investments in low-income housing, green energy, research and development, as well as depreciation of property.

“I asked the GE tax officer, ‘How long was your tax form?'” Ryan said. “He said, ‘Well, we file electronically, we don’t measure in pages.'” Ryan asked for an estimate, which came back at a stunning 57,000 pages. When Ryan relayed the story at the townhall meeting in Janesville, there were audible gasps from the crowd.

Ken Kies, a tax lawyer who represents GE, confirmed to THE WEEKLY STANDARD the tax return would have been 57,000 pages had it been filed on paper. The size of GE’s tax return has more than doubled in the last five years.

Related:

CNN: Obama Attacking Private Equity At 6am, Fundraising With Private Equity At 6pm (video) – LINK

Under Obama: Family Income Down. Jobless Claims High. Government Spending Up. Super Rich Getting Richer. – LINK

Wall St. Made More Money In 2.5 Years Of Obama Than 8 Years Of Bush – LINK

Top Private Banks Thriving in the Tumult – LINK

George Soros and Warren Buffet benefited from Obama Keystone Pipeline Veto – LINK

Obama Administration In Bed With Lobbyists Like Never Before – LINK

Top 20 Industry Money Recipients This Election Cycle – Who is in the back pocket of Wall Street? – LINK

Top All-Time Donors, 1989-2012 – Hint: Most goes to Democrats – LINK

Obama: Largest Wall Street Money Recipient, Hands Out Jobs to Contributors – LINK

Obama’s Swiss Banker …. Oh the Hypocrisy! – LINK

Corruption You Can Believe In: Failed Sub Primes and Mortgage Fraud Lenders Funneled Money to Dodd & Obama the Most. Fannie & Freddie Gave $200 Million to Partisans-Most Went to Democrats! Dodd, Obama Among Top Recipients. Republicans Attempted to Pass Reforms-Blocked by Democrat Leadership! – LINK

Corporatism, Firearms

Bank of America to gun company: Find another bank, it’s for political reasons…

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Via The Daily Caller:

McMillan Fiberglass Stocks, McMillan Firearms Manufacturing and McMillan Group International have been collectively banking with Bank of America for 12 years. But no more: In a recent meeting, the mega-bank told the firearms company that its business is no longer welcome.

Operations director Kelly McMillan told the Daily Caller that his company has never been late on a payment and has never bounced a check. The debt outstanding on its line of credit is at 61 percent.

But at the bank’s request, he said, the McMillan group of companies would soon be paying off its credit line and closing its accounts.

On Thursday, the Director of Operations Kelly McMillan explained on McMillan’s Facebook page:

Today Mr. Ray Fox, Senior Vice President, Market Manager, Business Banking, Global Commercial Banking [of Bank of America] came to my office. He scheduled the meeting as an ‘account analysis’ meeting in order to evaluate the two lines of credit we have with them. He spent 5 minutes talking about how McMillan has changed in the last 5 years and have become more of a firearms manufacturer than a supplier of accessories.

At this point I interrupted him and asked, ‘Can I [possibly] save you some time so that you don’t waste your breath? What you are going to tell me is that because we are in the firearms manufacturing business you no longer what my business.’

‘That is correct’ he [said].

I replied ‘That is okay, we will move our accounts as soon as possible. We can find a 2nd Amendment friendly bank that will be glad to have our business. You won’t mind if I tell the NRA, SCI and everyone one I know that BofA is not firearms industry friendly?’

‘You have to do what you must’ he said.

‘So you are telling me this is a politically motivated decision, is that right?’

Mr Fox confirmed that it was. At which point I told him that the meeting was over and there was nothing let for him to say.

The Blaze is reporting that Bank of America is denying all of this on their Facebook page. Who do you believe?

2012 Primary, Budget, Corporatism, Energy Policy, Obama, Pay to Play

Another Department of Energy funded solar energy company goes bankrupt…

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It is the same story over and over and over… a contributor or bundler for Obama asks for a loan from the taxpayers. He gets the loan, starts or gets involved with a solar panel company, they pay themselves big money, give money to the Obama campaign or a campaign group – and then go out of business.

The story isn’t always exactly like this, but generally this is how it has worked.

Breitbart News:

On Monday, yet another Department of Energy funded solar energy company –the world’s largest solar power plant—filed for bankruptcy. Reuters reports:

Solar Trust of America LLC, which holds the development rights for the world’s largest solar power project, on Monday filed for bankruptcy protection after its majority owner began insolvency proceedings in Germany.

The Oakland-based company has held rights for the 1,000-megawatt Blythe Solar Power Project in the Southern California desert, which last April won $2.1 billion of conditional loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy. It is unclear how the bankruptcy will affect that project.

The Reuters story states that the company won the loan, but as the Washington Post reported that the company turned down the loan in late September of 2011. The CEO of Solar Trust, Uwe T. Schmidt thought that the loan was “too risky”. The Obama administration was willing to loan more than two billion taxpayer dollars to a company who was unwilling to take that kind of risk. The company’s bankruptcy filings indicate they employed only nine people.

This $2.1 billion loan guarantee would have been equivalent to more than three Solyndra sized loans. Solar Trust is one of the companies Peter Schweizer mentioned in his book Throw Them All Out who were offered or received large Department of Energy loans or grants and also have ties to President Obama. Schweizer notes in his book that Citigroup Global Partners and Deutsche Bank have invested $6 billion in this project.

Until recently, the vice chair of Citigroup Global Partners was Louis Susman who sat on the National Finance Committee for Obama’s campaign in 2008. In return, Susman left Citigroup to become President Obama’s ambassador to Britain.Another partner in this project is Chevron, who favored candidate Obamaover his 2008 rival Senator McCain in campaign donations.

In addition to the offer of financial benefits this politically tied company received, Solar Trust also received regulatory benefits. The Bylthe Solar Power Project is located on federal land. While the Obama administration is decreasing development of proven energy sources like oil on federal lands, they actually fast tracked thisproject’s permitting process:

Solar Trust partnered with Chevron (NYSE: CVX) to develop the Blythe project, which is located on federal land. It and eight other projects were selected by the Bureau of Land Management for a fast-track program that reduced the time it took to get land permits.

Read more HERE.

Corporatism, Energy Policy, Pay to Play, True Talking Points

Corporatism in Action: Why an oil company backs Jerry Brown’s tax plan

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By our good friend Chuck DeVore:

Why would Occidental Petroleum, America’s fourth-largest oil company, donate $250,000 to a tax-hiking ballot initiative in California?

California’s expansive state government has found itself chronically short of funds as much due to a 31 percent boost in state spending from 2003-07 as to the economic slowdown. As a consequence, it may seem that tax-increase proposals have outnumbered jobs created in recent years.

Many big corporations backed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s $24 billion tax increase in 2009, reasoning that the taxes proposed beat the alternative: hiking taxes on business or the state’s oil industry.

California has the third-largest proven U.S. oil reserves, with the highest gas tax and the fifth-highest overall tax on the oil industry. But, taking more from California’s oil producers is a perennial favorite as it satisfies two important constituencies: environmentalists and consumers of government services.

Squeezing tax revenue out of oil isn’t that simple, however. California crude is heavy and sulfur-laden, making it more costly to refine and thus discounting its value by about 10 percent. A California oil “extraction tax” would act to destroy oil reserves by making locally produced oil more costly to recover, inadvertently boosting foreign oil, which California can’t tax. As a result, the value of Occidental’s California oil reserves drop to the extent taxed.
The power to tax is the power to destroy. What you tax, you get less of.

With this in mind, Occidental’s $250,000 contribution to Gov. Jerry Brown’s $9 billion tax hike initiative for the November ballot looks less like civic-minded corporate charity and more like a prudent investment. Especially since higher oil taxes would reduce the value of Occidental’s California oil reserves by hundreds of millions of dollars.
But there’s another rationale for Occidental’s assistance to the governor.

Last October, Occidental Petroleum’s CEO cited the snail’s pace of drilling-permit approvals in California as the reason for a slowdown in Occidental’s oil and natural-gas production. California granted 14 drilling permits out of 199 applications received through October 2011, a 7 percent rate. In 2009, 37 of 52 were granted, 71 percent.

Read more HERE.

2012 Primary, Budget, Corporatism, Econ, Flashback!, Health Law, Lies, Obama, True Talking Points

CBO: OOPS Our $940 Billion Number Was Wrong – ObamaCare to cost $1.76 trillion over 10 yrs – UPDATED!

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Remember when Obama and the Democrats went on and on saying that ObamaCare would only cost $900 Billion so that it would be revenue neutral (not ad to the deficit)?

It wasn’t just this writer back in his college days who said that this number was a pipe dream. Many conservatives who ran the numbers said it would cost over $2 trillion as I reported in my college days (1, 2, 3, 4).

But it gets worse, the CBO is still underestimating the cost. Why? ObamaCare doesn’t start to spend huge money until the last phase of it’s implementation in 2014, but the new taxes are already starting to be phased in and really ramp up in 2013 just after the election. So ObamaCare is taking in money for over a year before the large expenses start incurring. If we take that into account and start the ten years in 2014, which is much more honest, the expense according to my estimates will be close to $2.3 trillion over ten years. Feel free to mark me on this readers, as I am certain others will verify this in time, as my earliest predictions about ObamaCare have been spot on so there is no reason to believe my estimate will prove to be any different (the Examiner piece below mentions the nine year issue as well).

Remember the adverse selection “death” spiral we spoke of in posts below? The longer ObamaCare goes on the more the costs will rise exponentially as that is exactly what it is designed to do. If Democrats manage to prevent an ObamaCare repeal, they know darn well they will have to replace it with a total government take over soon or the system will blow up in a short time.

Washington Examiner:

President Obama’s national health care law will cost $1.76 trillion over a decade, according to a new projection released today by the Congressional Budget Office, rather than the $940 billion forecast when it was signed into law.

Democrats employed many accounting tricks when they were pushing through the national health care legislation, the most egregious of which was to delay full implementation of the law until 2014, so it would appear cheaper under the CBO’s standard ten-year budget window and, at least on paper, meet Obama’s pledge that the legislation would cost “around $900 billion over 10 years.” When the final CBO score came out before passage, critics noted that the true 10 year cost would be far higher than advertised once projections accounted for full implementation.

Today, the CBO released new projections from 2013 extending through 2022, and the results are as critics expected: the ten-year cost of the law’s core provisions to expand health insurance coverage has now ballooned to $1.76 trillion. That’s because we now have estimates for Obamacare’s first nine years of full implementation, rather than the mere six when it was signed into law. Only next year will we get a true ten-year cost estimate, if the law isn’t overturned by the Supreme Court or repealed by then. Given that in 2022, the last year available, the gross cost of the coverage expansions are $265 billion, we’re likely looking at about $2 trillion over the first decade, or more than double what Obama advertised.

UPDATE – ObamaCare to force increases in state Medicaid programs:

Again, this is something I wrote about and you can find on my old college blog in the four links above. One of the ways that  the costs of ObamaCare was hidden is that some of it’s implementation is through unfunded mandates to state medicaid programs.

Washington Examiner:

CBO boosts its Obamacare Medicaid cost estimate

The CBO now projects that from 2012 through 2021 the federal government will spend $168 billion more on Medicaid than it expected last year, $97 billion less on subsidies for people to purchase insurance on government-run exchanges and $20 billion less on tax credits to small employers.  That works out to a $51 billion increase in the gross cost of expanding coverage from what the CBO estimated a year ago. However, the CBO also expects the federal government to collect more revenue from penalties on individuals and employers, as well as other taxes. These revenue increases will more than offset the spending increases, according to the CBO, so it now expects the cost of Obamacare during those years to be $48 billion lower.

It’s also worth noting that we were told time and again during the health care debate that the law didn’t represent a government takeover of health care. But by 2022, according to the CBO, 3 million fewer people will have health insurance through their employer, while 17 million Americans will be added to Medicaid and 22 million will be getting coverage through government-run exchanges.

Check out the full CBO report here.

Corporatism, Econ, True Talking Points

America is being suffocated by excessive and badly written regulation

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The Economist:

AMERICANS love to laugh at ridiculous regulations. A Florida law requires vending-machine labels to urge the public to file a report if the label is not there. The Federal Railroad Administration insists that all trains must be painted with an “F” at the front, so you can tell which end is which. Bureaucratic busybodies in Bethesda, Maryland, have shut down children’s lemonade stands because the enterprising young moppets did not have trading licences. The list goes hilariously on.

But red tape in America is no laughing matter. The problem is not the rules that are self-evidently absurd. It is the ones that sound reasonable on their own but impose a huge burden collectively. America is meant to be the home of laissez-faire. Unlike Europeans, whose lives have long been circumscribed by meddling governments and diktats from Brussels, Americans are supposed to be free to choose, for better or for worse. Yet for some time America has been straying from this ideal.

Consider the Dodd-Frank law of 2010. Its aim was noble: to prevent another financial crisis. Its strategy was sensible, too: improve transparency, stop banks from taking excessive risks, prevent abusive financial practices and end “too big to fail” by authorising regulators to seize any big, tottering financial firm and wind it down. This newspaper supported these goals at the time, and we still do. But Dodd-Frank is far too complex, and becoming more so. At 848 pages, it is 23 times longer than Glass-Steagall, the reform that followed the Wall Street crash of 1929. Worse, every other page demands that regulators fill in further detail. Some of these clarifications are hundreds of pages long. Just one bit, the “Volcker rule”, which aims to curb risky proprietary trading by banks, includes 383 questions that break down into 1,420 subquestions.

Hardly anyone has actually read Dodd-Frank, besides the Chinese government and our correspondent in New York (see article). Those who have struggle to make sense of it, not least because so much detail has yet to be filled in: of the 400 rules it mandates, only 93 have been finalised. So financial firms in America must prepare to comply with a law that is partly unintelligible and partly unknowable.

Read more HERE.

2012 Primary, Corporatism, Energy Policy, Obama, Pay to Play, True Talking Points

Taxpayer dollars flow to firms with top Obama donors

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Welcome to Chicago, but in DC it is so much more of the same and YOU are paying the bill.

Washington Post:

Sanjay Wagle was a venture capitalist and Barack Obama fundraiser in 2008, rallying support through a group he headed known as Clean Tech for Obama.

Shortly after Obama’s election, he left his California firm to join the Energy Department, just as the administration embarked on a massive program to stimulate the economy with federal investments in clean-technology firms.

Following an enduring Washington tradition, Wagle shifted from the private sector, where his firm hoped to profit from federal investments, to an insider’s seat in the administration’s $80 billion clean-energy investment program.

He was one of several players in venture capital, which was providing financial backing to start-up clean-tech companies, who moved into the Energy Department at a time when the agency was seeking outside expertise in the field. At the same time, their industry had a huge stake in decisions about which companies would receive government loans, grants and support.

During the next three years, the department provided $2.4 billion in public funding to clean-energy companies in which Wagle’s former firm, Vantage Point Venture Partners, had invested, a Washington Post analysis found. Overall, the Post found that $3.9 billion in federal grants and financing flowed to 21 companies backed by firms with connections to five Obama administration staffers and advisers.

Obama’s program to invest federal funds in start-up companies — and the failure of some of those companies — is becoming a rallying cry for opponents in the presidential race. Mitt Romney has promised to focus on Obama’s “record” as a “venture capitalist.” And in ads and speeches, conservative groups and the Republican candidates are zeroing in on the administration’s decision to extend $535 million to the now-shuttered solar firm Solyndra and billions of dollars more to clean-tech start-ups backed by the president’s political allies.

White House officials stress that staffers and advisers with venture capital ties did not make funding decisions related to these companies. But e-mails released in a congressional probe of Obama’s clean-tech program show that staff and advisers with links to venture firms informally advocated for some of those companies.

David Gold, a venture capitalist and critic of Obama’s investments in clean tech, said that even if staffers had been removed from the final decision-making, they had the kind of inside access to exert subtle influence.

“To believe those quiet conversations don’t happen in the hallways — about a project being in a certain congressman’s district or being associated with a significant presidential donor, is naive,” said Gold, who once worked at the Office of Management and Budget. “When you’re putting this kind of pressure on an organization to make decisions on very big dollars, there’s increased likelihood that political connections will influence things.”

Read more HERE.