We're handing our country over to a man with no experience.
No experience as a businessman, or as a government official. All because
we dislike George W. Bush. America wanted ABB (Anything But Bush).
Well congratulations!
We've now elected a man to govern America whose entire experience
'governing' is having served less than 4 years in the US Senate.
During which time he never put his name on one bill of any significance.
He never even held a meeting for the committee that he chaired!
He arrived in Washington as a celebrity and then, spent 4 years running
for President. Worse yet, he now takes over the White House during the
worst economic crisis of our lifetime.
People across America naively say they hope Obama will solve this
economic crisis. Those who voted for him not only hope so, but believe it so.
I have a question for you. When I hire someone, I want to know about
their skills and experience for the job they're applying for. So, America
thinks Obama can fix this mess. With what? Voodoo? How can he solve
a business problem, when he knows absolutely nothing about business?
In the 25 years since we graduated Columbia University Class of '83 together,
Obama has never started a business, run a business, or risked his money on a
business deal. Not once in 25 years. During the campaign, he talked about
creating millions of jobs. Well, the next one he creates will be his first. Good
luck with that.
President-Elect Obama has never met a payroll, not to mention paying
employee payroll taxes or health insurance. Yet his supporters, fans and
voters think he holds the answers to a crumbling economy? I don't think
he could run a bakery, let alone the U.S. economy. How frightening is this
scenario?
I feel like a father who's fallen ill and had to hand over the keys to his
business to his 16 year old son- whose entire prior business experience
was running a lemonade stand at age 6. That's what we've just done to
the entire United States economy, except Obama hasn't even run a
lemonade stand.
My educated guess is Obama was the type of kid who got the neighborhood
lemonade stand shut down by calling City Hall to complain. His complaint:
the kid's lemonade stand didn't have a government-issued business license.
Lawyers to the left of me – lawyers to the right;
but not a drop of common sense.
Let's talk about the only serious experience Obama has. Experience that I consider
quite a negative.
It's not bad enough that he's never had any business experience. It gets
worse. Far worse. Obama is a lawyer. Lawyers mess up almost every
business deal they get involved with. Why? Because of a deadly combination
of big egos, combined with a lack of business acumen.
Lawyers learn absolutely nothing about business in law school. If they
learned about business, it would be called 'Business School.'
In law school, lawyers-to-be are taught how to sue businesses. There
aren't even offered courses on how to run one. There certainly aren't
any courses on how to run an economy.
Once out in the real world and practicing law, lawyers jump into business
deals with confidence, bravado and gusto. As well as one goal in mind- screwing up
every deal they can get theiur hands on- to prove how important they are.
And to justify their fat fees.
Their huge egos force them to weigh in on things they know absolutely
nothing about. After years of dealing with lawyers, I learned to appreciate
one of the great "inside lawyer" jokes: What is the most amazing trait of
lawyers? They can quote their fees without smiling.
This is one of the big problems of modern-day government. It's made up
of lawyers. Lawyers with some of the biggest egos on the planet. Lawyers
interested in playing the game. Interested in acquiring power and control
over your life. Because that's what lawyers do.
These lawyers try to get government involved in every and any facet of
our lives, no matter what. This whether they know a thing about what
they are getting involved in or not! Why? Because these lawyers-turned-politicians
want to justify their fat salaries and lofty titles. They learned this in Law School-
how to act important, charge big fees and take control of everything they're involved in.
Once these lawyers are elected as Mayor, to Congress, to Senate, or worse yet,
to the White House- do you think they'll ever let on that they don't know what
they're doing?
Politicians will never admit government doesn't have the solution.
If they did, they would lose their power and control over you.
President Obama will have to prove his brilliance and assert his power by
trying to solve things – even if government can only make it worse.
To a lawyer-politician, that's far better than admitting they don't know.
Obama and his wife are both lawyers. Neither have built a business.
Neither have ever been exposed to the real business world.
As a matter of fact, they weren't even business lawyers- they were both civil
rights lawyers and 'community activists.'
Do you have any idea what that means? They have spent their lives suing
and intimidating banks and businesses. The closest Obama ever got the
banking system was as ACORN's lawyer. Then, and as a 'community activist',
he pressured and intimidated banks to lend to unqualified buyers. And on property
that was not worth the paper the mortgage was written on.
This 'affirmative action lending' that banks were forced to do was the single
biggest cause of the mortgage meltdown and implosion of the American banking
system. Based on this "success" we've now put Barak Obama in charge of
the entire United States economy?
So what's the first thing a lawyer with a huge ego and no knowledge of
business will think he should do as President? He'll use the money and power
of government to try and fix the economy. Conveniently forgetting it's your
money he's playing with.
President Obama will create more laws while adding more regulations.
He's already said he wants to raise the minimum wage (thereby huring
business and costing jobs). Of course, in the spirit of fairness, he's planning
on ending secret ballot voting for unions (This will instantly create an environment
of intimidation and manipulation for dissenting union members).
President Obama is planning to raise taxes dramatically on our most successful
entrepreneurs and business owners, America's job-creators, to provide
himself with more money to 'fix' the economy.
Obama will punish success, while rewarding people who expect handouts.
He'll "create" jobs by expanding government. He'll spend billions on
government projects. All while create millions of new government jobs
for bureaucrats (increasing the size and power of government employee
unions). He was so brazen, it was recently disclosed, that Obama sent letters
in the days before the election to federal employees telling them how he'd give
them more power and expand their ranks. And of course he will redistribute the
wealth from taxpayers to union members by bailing out the Big 3 Automakers.
This is the least he can do to repay the huge contributions from those same unions.
Hey dude – Where's MY Bailout?
The Big 3 quietly received $25 Billion with a “B� just weeks ago. Few
Americans noticed this during the giant distraction of the stock market
meltdown. Now they've come back asking for $25 Billion more only weeks later.
Guess where the money will go? To pay for the same outrageous union pay,
pension plans and lifetime health care that bankrupted the Big Three
Automakers in the first place. We are simply subsidizing failed union
contracts that destroyed the U.S. auto industry in the first place.
Of course, it also wiped out the city of Detroit, which now wants a $10
billion dollar bailout, and gave Michigan the worst performing state economy
in the entire country. Gotta love those union contracts- the unions in Detroit
are like Canadien Mounties- they always get you. They'll either bankrupt you
today…or tomorrow…or the next day. But they always complete the job. With
friends like that, who needs enemies?
Does this sound like good business practice to you?
Of course, there is no choice for Obama and the Democratic Congress-
they received millions of votes and tens of millions of dollars from auto
unions and auto workers. They need to repay them today to keep their
support, not to mention their donations in 2012.
Only lawyer-politicians could possibly dream up this agenda to 'save' our
economy. But what are they saving it from? From capitalism?
Obama won't rest until the U.S. economy resembles France.'s The stagnant
French economy is dominated by big unions and big government. There are
few entrepreneurs or business owners in France- with taxes so high, there
is no way for individuals to ever save enough money to open a business.
Even if they did, the onerous taxes and regulations destroy their chances of
success. There are only two viable career routes in France: work for
government, or join a union and work for a big corporation. Is that what
we want our economy to become? I don't think Americans really want
Europe's version of big-government social capitalism (a nice way of saying
Socialism).
"GM, Ford and Chrysler are literally dead men walking.�
Where does it all end? Government giving another $25 Billion to GM,
Ford and Chrysler makes absolutely no business sense. Because of their
outrageous union contracts, the Big 3 Automakers can never turn their
companies around. They are 21st century dinosaurs – GM, Ford and
Chrysler are literally dead men walking.
Their entire business is based on a failed model (excuse the pun). Notice that
Honda, Nissan and Toyota aren't asking to be bailed out. They're building new
plants across America with non-union employees. They beat the Big 3 U.S. Automakers
by cutting costs and increasing efficiency. This is in large part by keeping their
payroll costs down to $30 to $40 per hour, instead of the $70 per hour
that American auto companies pay to union employees. Don't get me wrong-
If you can make that kind of wage- GREAT! Go get it. But only if you can earn it
without bankrupting your company, or asking taxpayers to bail you out.
One thing is clear with the auto industry- those $70 per hour wages are a fraud-
they can only work if they are subsidized by the U.S. government.
Is it fair to pay $50 Billion (if that's even enough) to the Big 3 Automakers while
successful companies get nothing? Why would we reward failure and
incompetence by the companies and unions? Oh, I forgot, that's Obama's
business model. Spread the wealth around, punish the successful and reward
people asking for handouts (his voters).
Who will pay for my bailout?
Many Americans are asking 'who will pay for my bailout?'
I'm a small business owner. I'm having tough times as well. My friends
with small businesses are all in big trouble right now. We're struggling to
survive. If you sell anything for a living right now, you are in big trouble-
because American consumers have stopped buying anything. Small business
creates a majority of private sector jobs in America and 75% of all new jobs.
Aren't we too important to the U.S. economy to fail? Who is bailing us out?
If we create by far more jobs than the Big 3 Automakers, why isn't there a
small business bailout plan from the U.S. Treasury?
Is it because small businesses aren't unionized? Or is it because they
didn't give huge donations to Obama and the Democratic Congress?
Allow me to present the free market alternative. It's simple- get government
out of the way. Any money government gives as 'bailouts', no matter to whom,
is money taken away from you and me. It's money taken from taxpayers, investors and
business people who would have used it to efficiently create jobs and wealth. Now it's
been confiscated by big government who will inefficiently use it to create less jobs than
the private sector could have created. You haven't gained a thing with a New Deal or
Great Society government program. For every job it creates, 2 (or more) jobs are lost
in the private sector. Money doled out by government to 'solve' this crisis, is money
taken away from you and me, away from the taxpayers and job-creators.
Money given to the Big 3 Automakers is a gigantic waste, temporarily
propping up (and rewarding) failed companies. One thing is certain about bailing out the
auto industry- they'll be back for more money…soon.
The free market alternative is to let the automakers go bankrupt or otherwise
find their own way. Will they go out of business? Probably not. The courts
will allow them to reorganize. They can and should renegotiate their union contracts,
through bankruptcy. Once they do this, they'll emerge as leaner and more
efficient companies.
Then and only then they will be able to compete with Toyota, Honda and
Nissan. If they don't, they'll be replaced by new auto companies with
better business plans. That's called capitalism.
Did the airline industry as we know it end when TWA went out of business?
Of course not. Out of the ashes, Southwest Airlines emerged with a new
business model. And it works! They get you there on time, don't lose your
luggage, charge low fares, and a nice profit. A profit both they and their
shareholders pay taxes on, too!
TWA deserved to fail. If we had bailed out TWA, there may never have
been room in the marketplace for a Southwest Airlines. What we need right
now is a "Southwest Motors."
The other choice to bankruptcy is a government bailout that allows the auto
industry to continue with their reckless, bloated business model at taxpayer expense.
Most importantly, all of this money the federal government is giving away
has to come from someone and somewhere. It's being stolen from us, the
American taxpayer, without explanation, discussion, debate or permission.
It's not government's money to give. It is our money- yours and mine. These
endless bailouts will keep our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren
enslaved. Enslaved by big government, with oppressively high taxes for
generations to come. But then that was Obama's plan in the first place.
Wayne Allyn Root's Commentaries can be found at:
www.ROOTforAmerica.com
