I like Sarah Palin in general, but I'm not a strong supporter of her political ambitions (whatever they may be). However, Mickey Kaus has pointed me towards a fantastic speech Palin gave in September railing against what she called "corporate crony capitalism".
Yeah, the permanent political class - they're doing just fine. Ever notice how so many of them arrive in Washington, D.C. of modest means and then miraculously throughout the years they end up becoming very, very wealthy? Well, it's because they derive power and their wealth from their access to our money - to taxpayer dollars. They use it to bail out their friends on Wall Street and their corporate cronies, and to reward campaign contributors, and to buy votes via earmarks. There is so much waste. And there is a name for this: It's called corporate crony capitalism. This is not the capitalism of free men and free markets, of innovation and hard work and ethics, of sacrifice and of risk. No, this is the capitalism of connections and government bailouts and handouts, of waste and influence peddling and corporate welfare. This is the crony capitalism that destroyed Europe's economies. It's the collusion of big government and big business and big finance to the detriment of all the rest - to the little guys. It's a slap in the face to our small business owners - the true entrepreneurs, the job creators accounting for 70% of the jobs in America, it's you who own these small businesses, you're the economic engine, but you don't grease the wheels of government power.So, do you want to know why the permanent political class doesn't really want to cut any spending? Do you want to know why nothing ever really gets done? It's because there's nothing in it for them. They've got a lot of mouths to feed - a lot of corporate lobbyists and a lot of special interests that are counting on them to keep the good times and the money rolling along.
Great stuff -- and stuff that the Tea Partiers and the #OWS crowd should all agree on. Broadly, there are two potential solutions:
1. Create more regulations, watchdogs, inspectors, and bureaucrats to try to prevent the cronyism. Basically, more checks-and-balances on political power.
2. Directly reduce the power of the political class by limiting the functions of (federal) government. Instead of more checks-and-balances on the power, just reduce the power.
Preference for (1) or (2) is what separates the Tea Party from #OWS.
(HT: Mickey Kaus.)
