| President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week. He halted the practice of annual bailouts of health insurance providers who were participating in his federal marketplace exchange and claimed a loss on their taxes. When the govt. creates a special classification of 'favored' corporations, winners and losers are chosen by executive fiat. In 2008 there were two big players on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs was favored and Lehman Brothers was not. Several Goldman Sachs executives helped Barack Obama get elected, and received govt. appointments. Then Goldman Sachs was propped up after the market crash of 2008. TARP money flowed to Goldman Sachs. Obama's team authorized year-end bonus pay to top Goldman Sachs executives for 2008, even though the firm was complicit in the Mortgage failures which precipitated the 2008 global market crash and 'great recession'. All of this happened in an environment where Goldman Sachs sought to influence political forces across the ideological spectrum. GS had top executives in the Bush43 administration & the Obama Administration. They prevailed whether Republicans or Democrats were in power. The federal health insurance exchange, itself, is not authorized by congress in the Affordable care Act. Obama was just 'winging it' when he decided to create the massive exchange. |  “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power” ― Benito Mussolini |
The Affordable Care Act & Bailouts To Favored Insurance Companies
The 2010 ACA bill was written to give the executive agencies massive powers to dictate rules and hand out billions to participating insurance companies. The Liberals who controlled congress in 2010 wrote the bill with the assumption that every state would create their own exchange and tap into the subsidies. The legislation specifically stated that only through these state exchanges could individuals of low income get a consumer subsidy to pay insurance premiums. Oklahoma AG, Scott Pruitt, filed a federal suit and the US Supreme Court narrowly ruled that when the 2013 Republican Congress approved the federal subsidies in their annual budget, it became legal because of the appropriation.
Obama and his political allies were able to establish fascist economic policies while decrying fascism. They did it by demonizing their political opponents and bastardizing the cultural understanding of what fascism is.
When the CEO of Whole Foods decried the ACA as fascism, their largely liberal patrons threw a fit. Eventually Whole Foods apologized for using the new 'f-word'. But the truth remains that when govt. highly regulates and controls corporations, you have a corrupted form of communism. Corporations find a way to use regulation to leverage out their competition. Eventually you have very few corporations in any one market. Then you have a policy of "too big to fail". Then you have tax dollars going to favored corporations as pure welfare payments. Then you have corporations with no incentive to remain efficient in their operations. They hide money and overpay executives. Executives heavily contribute to politicians. Corporations show massive red ink (on paper), and get even more bailouts.
Oklahoma had more than a dozen companies participating in the Federal exchange, in 2014. Just 4 years later, there may only be one (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma).
Just as Goldman Sachs squeezed out Lehman Brothers, Oklahoma's big corporate players typically squeeze out the "Mom & Pops" enterprises. Federal money typically goes to the big and well-connected giants. Yet half of all the jobs in the US are created by small business.
Competition is a good thing. It makes for an economic Darwinism doctrine where the survival of the fittest will motivate efficiency and competitiveness. But govt. corporatism does just the opposite. Govt. subsidies suppress competitiveness and promote corruption of both govt. & enterprise.
Obama and his political allies were able to establish fascist economic policies while decrying fascism. They did it by demonizing their political opponents and bastardizing the cultural understanding of what fascism is.
When the CEO of Whole Foods decried the ACA as fascism, their largely liberal patrons threw a fit. Eventually Whole Foods apologized for using the new 'f-word'. But the truth remains that when govt. highly regulates and controls corporations, you have a corrupted form of communism. Corporations find a way to use regulation to leverage out their competition. Eventually you have very few corporations in any one market. Then you have a policy of "too big to fail". Then you have tax dollars going to favored corporations as pure welfare payments. Then you have corporations with no incentive to remain efficient in their operations. They hide money and overpay executives. Executives heavily contribute to politicians. Corporations show massive red ink (on paper), and get even more bailouts.
Oklahoma had more than a dozen companies participating in the Federal exchange, in 2014. Just 4 years later, there may only be one (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma).
Just as Goldman Sachs squeezed out Lehman Brothers, Oklahoma's big corporate players typically squeeze out the "Mom & Pops" enterprises. Federal money typically goes to the big and well-connected giants. Yet half of all the jobs in the US are created by small business.
Competition is a good thing. It makes for an economic Darwinism doctrine where the survival of the fittest will motivate efficiency and competitiveness. But govt. corporatism does just the opposite. Govt. subsidies suppress competitiveness and promote corruption of both govt. & enterprise.
Italian Fascism vs Marxist Socialism
| The Obama policies were quite different from the Clinton doctrine of old-fashioned socialism. In fact, they can be quite hostile, just as Hitler's first objective was to destroy the Marxists of 1930s Germany. Mussolini heavily sided with Hitler. He said;
|  |
