Liberals Are Lamenting 'Cronyism'?

Liberals Are Lamenting 'Cronyism'?
By Austin Hill
4/24/2011

What do you call it when a group of liberal activists in San Francisco pay $76,000.00 to attend an exclusive fund raiser with President Obama, and then disrupt his speech in front of his private audience with a protest song? Some, no doubt, can dismiss this as a simple matter of “unrequited love” or “unmet expectations,” or maybe even just call it “amusing.” Yet the reality of the matter is more serious: Left-Wing America is still looking to Barack Obama to be their savior despite his repeated failures of the “savior test.” Barack Obama, on the other hand, is still expected to “pass” the test one of these days soon.

As America ’s approval of President Obama hit a record low in recent days, and a mere twenty-two percent of Americans believe that our country is “heading in the right direction,” liberal disapproval of the President has become louder and more visible. And there is something important to be learned about a group of liberals calling themselves “Fresh Juice Party,” when somebody doles-out the cash so ten group members (at $5,000.00 each) have the privilege of sitting in a private room with the President, and then use that exclusive opportunity to interrupt the President with a song that asks “where’s our change?” and laments the erosion of constitutional liberties.

Apparently the “Fresh Juice” folks thought that growing the size and scope of government, and concentrating more power in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats – agendas with which Senator Obama openly campaigned for the presidency back in the day – would make us all “more free,” instead of “less free.” But why would anybody with even a scant knowledge of world history, believe that these kinds of assumptions could be true?

Less familiar than the “Fresh Juice” incident are the emerging antics of a group calling themselves “U.S. Uncut.” An offshoot of the European “U.K. Uncut,” this group has devoted itself to protesting what they call American “corporate tax cheats,” and as their website rather childishly states, “If you have $1 in your pocket, then you have more than ExxonMobil, General Electric, & Bank of America paid in taxes last year, combined…”

Of course, the notion that these corporations “pay no taxes” is absurd. Every one of them is accountable for payroll taxes (and their employees certainly pay income taxes as well). But what if G.E. paid no additional taxes on their $5 billion of profit generated in 2010 from their U.S. operations? What if, as the New York Times asserted, it is true that G.E., with an “aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore," is getting a “special break” from our government?

Could it be that the cozy relationship between General Electric’s C.E.O. Jeffrey Immelt and President Obama has led to some of these “special breaks?” It’s a matter of public record that Mr. Immelt was a financial contributor to the President’s first campaign; and in less than a month after being inaugurated President Obama appointed Mr. Immelt as one of his “advisors,;” and after President Obama managed to get his “healthcare reform” legislation passed, the General Electric corporation was released from having to comply with the law’s mandates; and late last year the G.E. corporation was also given a “waiver” from having to comply with federal environmental regulations as they work towards building a power generating plant in California .

The protestors from “U.S. Uncut” and the “Fresh Juice Party” would probably prefer to ignore this, but there is every reason to believe that G.E. – and Bank of America and ExxonMobil and a bunch of other large corporations – get special favors and “waivers” from our government, because they can be personally useful to President Barack Obama.

Left-Wing America continues its political tactic of only accusing Republicans of being “in bed” with “greedy corporations.” But the man they elected President, through bailouts and waivers and blatant influence-peddling, has used the force of government to make himself a de facto CEO of huge chunks of the economy. He is now using that power for his own personal benefit. "Power corrupts," Lord Acton once said, "...and absolute power corrupts absolutely" - even if you're Barack Obama.

The government corruption that “U.S. Uncut” and “Fresh Juice” are so offended by is fortified and expanded by the expansive government for which they vote. America desperately needs less government intrusion in our private affairs, not more of it, yet Left Wing America still seems to be stuck in their rut of assuming that as long as Obama controls things, he’ll make it better for everybody.

America’s fourth President James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary…” Today, the Fresh Juice Party’s homepage reads “it would be wonderful if the words and deeds of our elected officials were as sweet as fresh juice…”

Will the Left Wing America ever learn?
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To read another article by Austin Hill, click here.