By Caomhin

There are three things I want to touch on briefly in this post that further highlight the complete contempt that the Obama administration has for free markets, and as such, the freedom individuals have to engage in the marketplace and control their own destinies.  Despite the rhetoric and the cover from his flank that the mainstream media provides him, Obama is hell-bent on destroying capitalism in America.  No string of well crafted words can hide the true feelings of this administration.

First, I have repeatedly warned of the dangers of the cap-and-trade system as being nothing more than creating a new, astronomically large bureaucracy within the government, which will mandate new laws and taxes which will be passed along directly to the consumer.  Obama has now stated that he places the utmost importance on enacting this measure.  Expenditures on new technologies used in “green” energy production, and indeed anything that raises the cost of production in general inevitably results in a marked shift in production curves, as does an increase of taxes levied on entities from governments.  The effect of these increases is a new, higher, equilibrium price, which unfortunately, will most likely be at lower levels of supply coupled with a sharp increase in prices, both of which will be detrimental to American consumers, particularly lower and middle income earners.

Hidden behind the mask of “environmentalism,” this cap-and-trade scheme is nothing more than a means to inflate the size and power of government while punishing the citizens.  As an example on a much smaller scale, you can see the result of the S-CHIP bill on consumers who smoke.   The direct tax that was levied on smokers raised the price of a pack of cigarettes, not only by the amount of the tax itself, but indeed, even higher.  While non-smokers may shrug at this and believe that it does not matter, in economic terms, it absolutely does matter.  These price hikes are not simply absorbed by a company, it is passed on to the consumer, and while most Americans may not smoke, ALL Americans purchase good, consume utilities, etc.  The costs of cap-and-trade will be passed directly onto you, as dictated by government bureaucracy, which is almost always inefficient and ripe with corruption.

Second, with relation to AIG Bonus issue, we know now, with no uncertainty that Treasury knew about these bonuses for months in advance.  We know that Chris Dodd (D-CT) made sure that language was inserted into the unread Stimulus Package in order to make sure these bonuses were paid out.  Bonuses that were legally mandated by contract,  but undoubtedly were a horrible business decision from both an economic and public relations standpoint.  Cynicism seems to be something I am more inclined to be drawn to as of late, and part of me wonders if this whole thing was a charade.

I find it quite odd that Geithner, Dodd, and other Congressmen had raised this issue of AIG bonuses in the past with no public outcry being put forth.  It is no secret that in the last election cycle Obama and Dodd were the two largest recipients of contributions from AIG.  However, I do not think this was simply a matter of protecting the interests of their political donors.  Rather, I think this was merely a well thought out plan to further scapegoat financial firms and to stoke anger against them in order to increase the power and scope of the federal government and Treasury under Obama’s direction.  A bit paranoid sounding, I’m sure, but then there is the following to consider.

With the upcoming battle on Obama’s budget, one that will saddle the United States with nearly unfathomable deficits for many years and pushing the nation toward bankruptcy, he is also now seeking to expand the ability of the Federal Government to seize control of any business that the government deems to be of risk to the economy.  They are doing this with AIG as the “model” for their ambitions, but this type of power has no basis in Constitutional Law or within the free market as a whole.  Here is a brief excerpt to consider:

He said that in addition to the power to seize a company, the proposed authority would give the government rights to sell or transfer assets or liabilities of the firm and renegotiate contracts, including those with employees.

This is truly disturbing for anyone who believes in free markets and the right of self determination.  The market always self corrects and people always adapt to the conditions of the marketplace.  These types of policies are a strike at the heart of capitalism, which in turn is tied directly to our freedom as granted to us by our Constitution, and are a slap in the face of The Declaration of Independence as well.

Lost of course, in all of their discussions is the fact that people such as Barney Frank, who prevented investigations into Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae long before the housing bubble burst, have done more damage to the economy that AIG could ever do.  The housing bubble started to grow as a result of the CRA and subsequent efforts by the government, under President Clinton’s direction, to increase lending to people who normally would not have qualified for mortgages in the first place, caused a major swelling in the bubble.  As calls for investigations into the books of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac came from the GOP, the Democrats blocked such moves.  One has to wonder what could have been prevented if the GOP were allowed to have pursued these inquiries.

The last point I will touch upon, and thank you for staying with this long post, is that we know what we are facing at this time.  We are facing an assault on free market capitalism, our rights as individuals to make decisions in the marketplace, and our ability to chase our dreams, to succeed in reaching them, or to fail trying to do so, but that pursuit is our right, win, lose, or draw.  I am asking everyone who believes in the free market, lower taxes, and the right of self determination to fight to keep our rights intact.  Donate to a cause dedicated to do so, write a letter to the editor, talk to friends and neighbors, do whatever you are capable of to defend our rights.  It’s our fight now and everyone’s a starter, there is no backups, or bench, no last line of defense.  It’s us and it’s all or nothing. Let’s go.