I often get these alerts in my email — I’m sure many of you do, too — and oftentimes I’m struck by the disconnect between what, for instance, CNN thinks it’s accomplishing and what it is that’s actually being accomplished by what they choose to promote.
This is a case in point. Notes the email:
Gov. Malloy (D-CT) says to Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), “Which president saved the automobile industry? Your candidate wanted the automobile industry to go bankrupt. That’s what he said. He wrote an editorial in the paper. That would have cost another million jobs…. And by the way, when you talk about your desire to create jobs, where have you been on a jobs bill?”
This is then followed by a link to the video of the exchange.
Several things: first, the mechanism we have in this country for allowing companies in distress to file bankruptcy and then restructure enables such companies to survive and make necessary changes that will keep them viable. Romney (among others) argued that letting a couple of car companies to go through bankruptcy in the traditional way is the proper way for those companies to handle the failings of the business models they were using. Importantly, a couple of companies do not the entire “automobile industry” make: Ford, for instance, didn’t need to file for bankruptcy, and the government stepping in to save its competitors using privileged means is precisely the kind of cronyism the market shouldn’t be manipulated by government to engage in.
Second, the President bailed out the UAW and their contracts and screwed the bond holders. That is, he used the power of government to pick winners and losers by circumventing established bankruptcy law while still pretending to use the bankruptcy process. Unfairly. He took care of his constituency and at the same time showed investors that they are, in the end, only protected by law insofar as the government is willing to follow that law. And laws, to the king, are fluid.
Third, where does this “another million jobs” figure come from? Assuming GM and Chrysler were allowed to go through bankruptcy and were wholly and suddenly liquidated — and that nothing rushed to fill the market vacuum — were there even a million jobs to lose? And of course, that’s not how the market works: if some other companies sprung up or expanded to compete with, eg, Ford, they’d need experienced workers. Who would then be available on the market. But not at the same wage, because it was largely the union wage and benefits package that caused the failed companies to go under to begin with.
And finally — and this is my favorite — Governor Malloy’s casually flung accusation, “and by the way, when you talk about your desire to create jobs, where have you been on a jobs bill?” is actually quite telling, and a rather stark indictment of the Democrat’s / progressive idea about how free market capitalism works. To wit, Malloy’s accusation has no sting whatever unless one believes — as he seems to — that jobs are created when the government passes jobs bills commanding them into existence.
— Which, presumably, would then be followed by bills requiring everyone be rich, along with bills outlawing crime and war.
So we’re getting a pretty nice public showing of who exactly these progressives are and how it is they think: government owns us, and jobs are created by Congresspeople who write bills willing them into being.
That’s a lot of power, these people believe they have and deserve. And a lot of delusions about how things actually work.
It would be laughable if it wasn’t so damn frightening.
Then there’s the small fact that the GOP-controlled House has passed “jobs bills”, numbering somewhere in the double digits (15? 16?), all of which have died at the feet of Harry Reid in the Senate.
So suck it, Governor.
So we’re getting a pretty nice public showing of who exactly these progressives are and how it is they think: government owns us, and jobs are created by Congresspeople who write bills willing them into being.
Alas, that their allies in the media and the schools have brainwashed so many of our countrymen into believing the same thing.
“And finally — and this is my favorite — Governor Malloy’s casually flung accusation, “and by the way, when you talk about your desire to create jobs, where have you been on a jobs bill?” is actually quite telling, and a rather stark indictment of the Democrat’s / progressive idea about how free market capitalism works. To wit, Malloy’s accusation has no sting whatever unless one believes — as he seems to — that jobs are created when the government passes jobs bills commanding them into existence. ”
So now that we’ve established that legislation=creation, why the hell hasn’t Jason Chaffetz passed a “buns of steel” bill? I’m tired of hitting the Stairmaster…
We can probably all recall a time when it was a commonplace to say that no President “controls” the economy (which, “the economy” HA!, is there even such a thing at all?), but that President’s were either credited or debited — falsely — for the happenstance conditions of economic matters, whether the particular President had any tiny effect on those conditions or not.
Nowadays, it has become a commonplace to leave aside entirely any such conditional argument. But then, that would stand to reason as the portion of the national product falls increasingly into the control of a central agency, the government, to such an extent that if carried to its end, 100% control, it would make no sense to speak of a President — or by that time we’ll just call him Leader or Fuehrer or Man of Steel — as anything less than the source of all prosperity. Though we understand that by prosperity we’ll actually mean misery.
And your candidate put it in bankruptcy.
What Romney said: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt
What Obama did: Humbled GM files for bankruptcy protection
Chrysler files for bankruptcy
I notice that no one mentioned any of this. Why?
Daily Caller: Emails: Obama officials enriched former firms, possibly themselves with auto bailout
The “magical” thinking of the legislative class. Invoke the word “jobs” in the bill title and jobs will magically appear when it is passed into law.
DOJ Inspector General to Testify on Fast and Furious
Next week.
I think the GOP missed an opportunity to introduce the “Full Employment Act of 2012” consisting entirely of tax cuts, and then to harrangue the President and the Senate for “being against full employment.”
Fight frhetorical ire with fire.
Next week.
So on Tuesday, the flying bombs of Fast & Furious will knock down the twin towers of Obama & Holder? ‘Twould go a long way toward redeeming the date.