Tesla honcho Elon Musk is not like Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, or even LeBron James, who made their billions through innovation in a free, fair market. Musk has made his wealth from the taxpayer (if not all, at least a lot of). In a particularly glorious, damning bit of…
Some conservatives have criticized the deal the incoming Trump administration struck with Carrier to keep several hundred manufacturing jobs in Indiana as "crony capitalism," but Texas senator Ted Cruz had nothing but praise for Trump when asked about the deal on Tuesday.
Just as the hippies made peace with material prosperity, the Democratic party has increasingly reached out to corporate America. The potential alliance between progressivism and big business could have major implications for American politics. If Republicans fail to offer an optimistic alternative…
House conservatives complained loudly about the Export-Import Bank during last year’s midterm campaign. The hope was, with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, that conservatives could find the will to kill the program -- which, by the way, should be relatively easy. If Congress does…
Well, this was predictable. House Republicans last week acceded to an extension of the Export-Import Bank for at least the next nine months. The Export-Import Bank is far from the worst example of government-business cronyism. I just completed a history of American political corruption and actually…
This year’s turbulent primary season, which hit a crescendo this month with David Brat’s upset victory over House majority leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, is an opportunity for conservatives to reflect. Why have our political leaders struggled…
Republican senator Mike Lee has an op-ed decrying cronyism. But first, he says, the Republicans must purge the unseemly activity from within its "own ranks."
Two car companies – Toyota and GM – some of whose vehicles are having engineering problems serious enough to be a safety risk and require massive recalls. One is investigated by Congress and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration while the other is not … until very recently, that is.…
President Obama attended a Democratic fund raising event in Weston, Massachusetts Wednesday night at the home of Alan and Susan Solomont. Among the 60 attendees were a number of high-profile Democrats, according to the Boston Globe:
It seems that not all outsourcing is equal ... or something like that. Take, for instance, the building of an automobile known as the Fisker. This is the car that teen-throb Justin Bieber was driving when busted for speeding not so long ago. The Fisker is a set of wheels that appeals to socially…
At a campaign event in Pennsylvania, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that "Liberal policies don't make good jobs," before critiquing Obamacare, overbearing regulations, slow job growth, and a slew of other Obama policies. Romney also focused on crony capitalism in the Obama…
Mitt Romney's latest web ad targets President Obama's inability to create jobs, the failures of the Department of Energy's loan guarantee program, and "contracts steered to ‘friends & family.'" Watch here:
New York Times: "Peter Gleick Admits to Deception in Obtaining Heartland Climate Files"
Nancy Pelosi, who's been much criticized recently for using her political clout to enrich herself, doesn't appear to be too worried about crony capitalism:
Washington Post: "Supercommittee members face rising pressure from all sides"
The crony capitalism represented by the failed “green energy” firm Solyndra has gotten a lot of media attention lately, but much lower on the public’s radar is a much bigger example of corporate pork over at the national space agency—and it’s bipartisan. Let’s call it Shuttlyndra.
Associated Press: "Obama donor discussed solar loan with White House"
Ross Douthat: "Our Reckless Meritocracy"
Earlier this week it was reported that the White House considered a last-minute taxpayer bailout of Solyndra, the failed solar panel maker that received a $529 million loan guarantee. One of the more interesting aspects of that deal—which would have had taxpayers purchasing as much as 40 percent of…
Well, now we know the reason for the Friday night news dump. When the Obama administration finally announced that they would be launching an independent review of Department of Energy loan guarantees, they were likely trying to get out ahead of this:
This is starting to become a familiar refrain:
Democratic leaders have been quick to embrace Occupy Wall Street. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has been fundraising off the protesters. Nancy Pelosi believes that God should bless the movement. And many other Democrats seem to have simply embraced Occupy Wall Street by expressing…
Will it turn out worse than Solyndra?:
Kevin Williamson: A (Steve) Jobs Agenda
Sometimes in politics appearing guilty can have more consequences that actually being guilty (though the two frequently are related). And this latest development in the Solyndra scandal certainly looks bad:
The Los Angeles Times opened up a new front in the Solyndra scandal on Friday (and there are too many fronts to count at this point), reporting that Steve Spinner, another prominent Obama donor, served as a top official in the Energy Department program that made the half-billion dollar loan to the…
Two big stories are out tonight on the blossoming scandal involving failed solar panel company and stimulus funds recipient Solyndra. First, the Washington Post reports that the White House pressured the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to speed up the approval process for Solyndra's $535…
If the president’s Labor Day speech at a General Motors plant in Detroit is any indication, Barack Obama may be hoping to use his administration’s cozy relationship with Big Auto as a boon to his reelection campaign, especially since his efforts to boost the economy and cut unemployment have fallen…
In her speech to a Tea Party gathering in Indianola, Iowa on Saturday, Sarah Palin criticized what she called "crony capitalism:"
I’m not a movie critic and I read Atlas Shrugged decades ago when I was in the Army. So it wasn’t exactly fresh in my mind when I attended a special screening in Washington this week of the film version of the novel by Ayn Rand. I had low expectations. But it turns out to be a terrific movie.
Uh oh. First, Russ Feingold came out swinging at General Electric for not paying any taxes and now The Daily Show tears into NBC for not covering the scandal involving their parent country. It seems that Obama's favorite CEO is officially in hot water on the left:
Russ Feingold speaks truth to power. He calls out one aspect of the Obama administration’s crony-capitalist, big-government-corporatist, welfare-state liberalism—the relationship between the Obama White House and its favorite pet CEO, GE’s Jeffrey Immelt. Russ has a petition—see below—calling on…
General Electric paid no American taxes in 2010, the New York Times reports: