Here is the lament I heard: the near $5 trillion in borrowing in just three years, the radical growth in the size of the federal government and its regulatory zeal, ObamaCare, the Boeing plant closure threat, the green jobs sweet-heart deals and Van Jones-like “Millions of Green Jobs” nonsense, the vast expansion in food stamps and unemployment pay-outs, the reversal of the Chrysler creditors, politically driven interference in the car industry, the failed efforts to get card check and cap and trade, the moratoria on new drilling in the Gulf, the general antipathy to new fossil fuel exploitation coupled with new finds of vast new reserves, the new financial regulations, an aggressive EPA oblivious to the effects of its advocacy on jobs, the threatened close-down of energy plants, the support for idling thousands of acres of irrigated farmland due to environmental regulations, the constant talk of higher taxes, the needlessly provocative rhetoric of “fat cat”, “millionaires and billionaires,” “corporate jet owners,” etc. juxtaposed, in hypocritical fashion, to Martha’s Vineyard, Costa del Sol, and Vail First Family getaways — all of these isolated strains finally are becoming a harrowing opera to business people.
Gary Edwards on 16 Nov 11n a chapter titled "Breaking the Back of Crony Capitalism," Schweizer lays out some much needed reforms that he hopes are undertaken. Here are some of his proposals: * Create a legal code that makes trading on nonpublic government information illegal both for those who pass the information and for those who trade on it. * Corporate insiders trading their own company's stock are required to disclose these transactions to the SEC within two days. Why not apply the same standard to Congress? * Members of Congress should not be allowed to trade stock in companies that are overseen by their committees. * Apply whistleblower laws to Congress. If it's good enough for federal workers and corporate employees, it should be good enough for Congress. * Disallow "sweetheart" IPOs. Unless the initial public offering goes through a public auction, in which people can openly compete for shares in a bidding contest, members of Congress should not be allowed to participate. * Family members of legislators should not be allowed to become lobbyists. * The federal government needs to get out of the business of offering grants and taxpayer-backed loans. Americans who have suspected that Washington does not have their interests at heart and wonder on their trips to the nation's capital how it is such a gilded boomtown will get answers in this book. The country is at the beginning stages of a citizen revolt against the permanent political class whose interests are tied to the crony capitalistic system that benefits their own self-interest.
