Crony Capitalism

"The stereotype of Wall Street being Republican is decades out of date."

Oso, a liberal commenter (a thinking liberal), recently observed here that from his perspective, Obama so far looks a lot like Bush.  I had to agree.  Both men are statists, freely mingling government and business in an orgy of money and special favors.

Big Business has no Ideology but Profit

Michael Barone writes about how crony capitalism has thrived under the Obama administration, continuing and expanding the unholy business-government embrace of the Bush administration.

Lobbyists, reports the Center for Responsive Politics, had a record 2009 in Barack Obama's Washington. Despite candidate Obama's promises to shun them, they raked in $3,470,000,000.

Goldman employee contributions to Democrats in 2008 ranked second only to those employed by the University of California. JPMorgan Chase's employees ranked No. 7. The stereotype of Wall Street being Republican is decades out of date.

Barone Describes Crony Capitalism in a Nutshell:

The government and the United Auto Workers own General Motors and Chrysler, which aren't likely to pay back their billions in TARP money any time soon, if ever. Meanwhile the government tells Americans to stop driving Toyotas.

Big Business has been busy lobbying Big Government for "reforms" that serve big companies' interests. Wal-Mart backs a health care mandate, Philip Morris shapes tobacco regulation, General Electric is setting up a joint venture to trade carbon offsets (wasn't that Enron's line of work back in the day?).

Statism is a disease that strikes both Democratic and Republican governments, and crony capitalism is a bipartisan sport. Until their is bipartisan voter anger, the games will continue to bleed us dry.