Brian4Liberty
12-18-2014, 01:24 PM
The Myth of Anti-Corporate Liberals (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/394881/myth-anti-corporate-liberals-veronique-de-rugy)
By Veronique de Rugy - December 17, 2014
Over at Mother Jones, Kevin Drum makes fun of the idea that Elizabeth Warren and tea partiers can band together to fight cronyism. His argument: The tea partiers aren’t anti-corporation — or, well, when they are, it’s over “trivial issue” like the Ex-Im Bank and their motives aren’t pure anyway. All they care about is putting grandma in the street, slashing taxes for the rich, and deregulating big banks.
...
He’s right that, with a few noticeable exceptions, Republicans and tea partiers aren’t committed to fighting cronyism as much as they should. ... As I’ve said before, many Republicans are either confused about the fundamental differences between being pro-business and being pro-market or simply don’t value the free market more highly than their loyalties to special interests (bankers, farmers, or whatever).
But the other notion underlying Drum’s piece, that Democrats, and Elizabeth Warren in particular, are anti-corporation, is laughable.
Please. They talk the talk, but when it’s time to vote, they rarely walk the walk. ... They support the Department of Energy’s 1705 loans, which mostly go to wealthy energy companies, and they never fail to join Republicans in saving other corporate energy subsidies; they support the reauthorization of OPIC, which mostly benefits large corporations; they support farm subsidies, which mostly benefit large agro-businesses at the expenses of small farms; they support Obamacare, which among other things amounts to a huge giveaway to the insurance industry; they support auto and bank bailouts; and for all their complaints about Wall Street, they managed to write a law, Dodd-Frank, that in some ways protects the big financial institutions that they claim to despise.
...
Drum can make fun all he wants of the triviality the Ex-Im fight (he isn’t the first liberal to try), but it’s a perfect example of Democrats’ devotion to special interests. First, if it is such a trivial issue, it should be easy to get rid of. And yet, this year, almost all Democrats in the House are supporting this big corporate boondoggle – even though many of them used to be against it.
Elizabeth Warren’s support of the Ex-Im Bank is everything but trivial. The mega-banks that Warren always complains about are some of the biggest beneficiaries of Ex-Im: They get to extend billions of dollars in loans and collect large fees and interest rates without shouldering most of the risk involved. This is exactly the kind of favoritism for Wall Street she says she opposes.
...
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/394881/myth-anti-corporate-liberals-veronique-de-rugy
By Veronique de Rugy - December 17, 2014
Over at Mother Jones, Kevin Drum makes fun of the idea that Elizabeth Warren and tea partiers can band together to fight cronyism. His argument: The tea partiers aren’t anti-corporation — or, well, when they are, it’s over “trivial issue” like the Ex-Im Bank and their motives aren’t pure anyway. All they care about is putting grandma in the street, slashing taxes for the rich, and deregulating big banks.
...
He’s right that, with a few noticeable exceptions, Republicans and tea partiers aren’t committed to fighting cronyism as much as they should. ... As I’ve said before, many Republicans are either confused about the fundamental differences between being pro-business and being pro-market or simply don’t value the free market more highly than their loyalties to special interests (bankers, farmers, or whatever).
But the other notion underlying Drum’s piece, that Democrats, and Elizabeth Warren in particular, are anti-corporation, is laughable.
Please. They talk the talk, but when it’s time to vote, they rarely walk the walk. ... They support the Department of Energy’s 1705 loans, which mostly go to wealthy energy companies, and they never fail to join Republicans in saving other corporate energy subsidies; they support the reauthorization of OPIC, which mostly benefits large corporations; they support farm subsidies, which mostly benefit large agro-businesses at the expenses of small farms; they support Obamacare, which among other things amounts to a huge giveaway to the insurance industry; they support auto and bank bailouts; and for all their complaints about Wall Street, they managed to write a law, Dodd-Frank, that in some ways protects the big financial institutions that they claim to despise.
...
Drum can make fun all he wants of the triviality the Ex-Im fight (he isn’t the first liberal to try), but it’s a perfect example of Democrats’ devotion to special interests. First, if it is such a trivial issue, it should be easy to get rid of. And yet, this year, almost all Democrats in the House are supporting this big corporate boondoggle – even though many of them used to be against it.
Elizabeth Warren’s support of the Ex-Im Bank is everything but trivial. The mega-banks that Warren always complains about are some of the biggest beneficiaries of Ex-Im: They get to extend billions of dollars in loans and collect large fees and interest rates without shouldering most of the risk involved. This is exactly the kind of favoritism for Wall Street she says she opposes.
...
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/394881/myth-anti-corporate-liberals-veronique-de-rugy