Patterico's Pontifications

12/2/2016

If Trump’s Carrier Deal Favors One Business Over Others, It’s Crony Capitalism, Says . . . Sarah Palin

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 11:50 pm



Sarah Palin has an op-ed that is being reported as criticism of Trump’s Carrier deal. I’m not sure it’s fair to say Palin is criticizing the deal, as she continually says that the terms are not yet clear. But she does make a very good point: if the deal favors one company over others, that’s crony capitalism — and it’s not supposed to be what Republicans stand for:

I am ecstatic for Carrier employees! Their bosses just decided to keep shop onshore. What a relief for hundreds of workers. Merry Christmas Indiana!

We don’t yet know terms of the public/private deal that was cut to make the company stay, but let’s hope every business is equally incentivized to keep Americans working in America.

. . . .

When government steps in arbitrarily with individual subsidies, favoring one business over others, it sets inconsistent, unfair, illogical precedent. Meanwhile, the invisible hand that best orchestrates a free people’s free enterprise system gets amputated. Then, special interests creep in and manipulate markets. Republicans oppose this, remember? Instead, we support competition on a level playing field, remember? Because we know special interest crony capitalism is one big fail.

. . . .

But know that fundamentally, political intrusion using a stick or carrot to bribe or force one individual business to do what politicians insist, versus establishing policy incentivizing our ENTIRE ethical economic engine to roar back to life, isn’t the answer.

I have had my doubts about Sarah Palin recently. But this is a courageous thing for her to say. She’s being considered for a position in the Trump administration, allegedly. For her to speak on behalf of conservative, free-market principles, especially at a time when it appears Donald Trump may be violating them, speaks well of her.

Good for Sarah Palin.

[RedState.]

65 Responses to “If Trump’s Carrier Deal Favors One Business Over Others, It’s Crony Capitalism, Says . . . Sarah Palin”

  1. How would it have been for the competitors if Carrier if Carrier moved the factory to Mexico, slashed its labor costs by 85%, and sent A/C units back into the US market at a price 25% cheaper than the ones it was selling assembled in Indiana?

    You think Carrier’s competitors would rather have Carrier get $7 million in tax incentives — which are linked to Carrier making $15 million in improvements to their Indiana facilities (meaning the state will recapture some of the $7 million in the form of taxes on goods and labor connected to Carrier’s $15 million in spending) — as opposed to Carrier saving 85% on labor and then under-cutting them price-wise in them on price in the market?

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  2. Ding-dong, Avon, calling. Quitter Palin is out of her league.

    Carrier is a stocking stuffer. With a DoD legacy contractor like UT, a deal keeps it Christmas in Connecticut year ’round.

    http://www.utc.com/Who-We-Are/Pages/At-A-Glance.aspx

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  3. Different topic – Dems in Senate have found a pressure point in nomination process.

    My guess is they are going to force Trump to pick between Mattis and Sessions.

    Mattis requires a waiver from rule baring a retired military officer from serving as SecDef until 7 years after retirement. The way around the rule is legislation creating an exemption for him.

    In the Senate that legislation is going to require 60 votes to close debate.

    The price Trump is going to have to pay for 8 Dem votes on Mattis is going to be withdrawing Sessions’ nomination.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  4. That’ll work real well when Trump gets on TV and explains that Chuck Schumer and his band of scumbags (Please call them scumbags) are blocking safety in our streets and the safety of our military heros theought the world.

    Donald (bd230b)

  5. Nuclear option, and the enemy will be McCain, not any Democrat.

    nk (dbc370)

  6. To make it clear, all the nuclear option needs is 50 Republicans (or 50 mixed Republicans/Blue Dog Democrats) and the Vice President.

    nk (dbc370)

  7. The dems are holding out hope in Louisiana, they can get to 49, they st they stonewalled on negroponte for a year, it took September q1th to break the log jam.

    narciso (d1f714)

  8. Now here’s a good example of journalistic curiousity and something that NEEDS ATTTENTION:

    “YES: Comey’s FBI Needs to Investigate Violent Democratic Tantrums: Robert Creamer-type operations—like coordinated nation-wide protests—require money.

    It’s time for the FBI to conduct a detailed investigation into the violence and political thuggery that continue to mar the presidential election’s aftermath. A thorough probe of the protests—to include possible ties to organizations demanding vote recounts—will give the Bureau’s integrity-challenged director, James Comey, a chance to sandblast his sullied badge.

    Director Comey must also include “elector intimidation” on his post-election investigation list. Reports that members of the Electoral College are being harassed and threatened by angry, vicious (and likely Democratic Party) malcontents require Comey’s quick and systematic attention.

    Michael Banerian, one of Michigan’s 16 electors, told CNN: “Obviously, this election cycle was pretty divisive. Unfortunately it’s bled over into the weeks following the election and I have been inundated with death threats, death wishes, generally angry messages trying to get me to change my vote to Hillary Clinton or another person, and unfortunately, it’s gotten a little out of control.”

    A little out of control? What an understatement. Let me put it to you straight and personal, Jim. Identifying electors and then attempting to intimidate them into switching their votes is an ipso facto effort to overturn a national election. Which leads to a question a competent FBI Director would already have his agents asking: Is this elector threat scheme a coordinated operation?

    Why, electors live in different states. A mind with a talent for the obvious would see a federal interest. Federal as in Federal Bureau of Investigation. That’s the outfit you head, Mr. Comey—at least until the Obama Administration expires.

    Which takes us back to the violent protests and political thuggery. Let me introduce you to two vicious Democratic Party operatives FBI agents should have quizzed and collared two months ago: Robert Creamer and The Hideous Scott Foval. These two creeps starred in Project Veritas’ video investigation of violent incitement during the political campaign.”

    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/250821/

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  9. It’s an outcome to be loved in Democrat Land, where outcomes are everything, and opportunity is just a chore.
    Kudos to Palin for setting herself up with a really easy target to throw tomatoes at. And here, we all thought she was endorsing a president.

    M Patterson (7d4d4d)

  10. Meh. Even a broken clock, etc.

    Demosthenes (09f714)

  11. The powerline week in review is interesting.

    narciso (d1f714)

  12. She said back in 2008, that volodya need be watched, saw that detainees were not do constitutional right, so she is a leading indicator

    narciso (d1f714)

  13. Without the blue-collar working class voters in Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania who’ve voted Democrat in the past, Mr Donald wouldn’t have won the electoral college.
    This deal with Carrier may violate some free market principles, but it’s great optics for Trump with the voters who turned the election in his favor.
    He’s probably going to need those same voters in those same states again in 2020.

    The Democrats know if they publicly criticize this deal they risk looking like the party that wants to see an American company outsource some of its jobs to Mexico.
    After all, politics is about optics.

    Advantage: Mr Donald

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  14. oh for the love of string cheese she’s such a simpleton

    in the food stamp era after eight years of vicious economic obama rape, good jobs are something a dirt-ocean state like Indiana has to compete for

    i love how Mr. Trump’s used Carrier to help idiot failmericans understand that under the status quo president food stamp’s left, any sane company would be moving to a less oppressive less fascist country where as a bonus they could employ smarter people that can read and aren’t morbidly obese and dirty

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  15. Sarah Palin evidently isn’t getting a job or she wouldn’t have put on her conservative warrior costume to blast the same kind of deals she made as Governor of Alaska.

    shipwreckedcrew @3 is undoubtedly right about democrat intentions but the arbitrary 7 year cooling off period for ex-military officers to serve may be good policy but is also likely an unconstitutional restraint on presidential appointments. Attempts to block sensible appointments and obstruct every pro-American utterance are only going to make Don Trumpio stronger.

    crazy (d3b449)

  16. There was controversy over the agia bill, when none of the majored were willing to construct the pipeline, she contacted ‘the Canadian menavr’

    narciso (d1f714)

  17. Transcanada, but then Obama rewarded a nasty pikachu, persilly with the pipeline coordinator post and he stammered and stuttered till Transcanada gave up.

    narciso (d1f714)

  18. Since Trump ran against free trade, I can’t see it’s very surprising that he isn’t implementing free trade principles. He was not elected to do that and at least a plurality of his voters would consider it a betrayal if he did.

    The Democrats are also officially, at least, against free trade: the TPP which one had a thousand fathers in now an orphan.

    Free trade, simply, is not popular with the electorate. Neither, for that matter, is Sarah Palin.

    Experience is a hard master, fools will have no other. Free trade is for the Right what gay marriage was for the Left. If you’re passionate about seeing it come to pass, a great deal of patience and quiet work behind the scenes will be required.

    Gabriel Hanna (9b1f4a)

  19. Every time I have run into something negative about Sarah Palin and run it back, it has turned out to be a Liberal/Progressive canard, either made up from the whole cloth or jerked from context and exaggerated. Now, I don’t assert that EVERYTHING negative said about her is wrong – I got tired of checking awfully fast – but that seems to be the way to bet.

    C. S. P. Schofield (99bd37)

  20. Mostly, cap she was dinged initially for answering a question couruc’s diligent researcher might have apprised her off, whereas the salon gets off

    narciso (d1f714)

  21. Greetings:

    On the other hand, unextreme crony capitalism in the defense of livelihoods may be no vice.

    I hope your getting the emotional satisfaction that you have for so long been deprived of but after seven years of nice little capitalism you got there from the Obama administration this seems to be a rather thin gruel or those small potatoes they talk about where I grew up.

    Since the Trump success, it seems to me that there has been a kind of mass amnesia inflicted on all kinds and variations of “#NeverTrumpites” that permits their intellects to “know nothing” about what has recently, and continues, to pass. If you’re so disturbed by this bit of perhaps “crony capitalism” what about the las t seven years of “crony progressivism” counselor ???

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  22. If you haven’t done it yet – e.g., since 11/8/16, you’ve been too busy ranting about statements made by the president-elect before he takes office – take some time to savor the Democrat’s and 0bama’s hand-wringing and hysterical reaction to their historic shellacking, as they look everywhere but at themselves. It will be well worth it.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  23. The never trumpers are migrating to Palin while the democrats continue to follow Pelosi. Sort of sad.

    Moses they are not……come to the real promised land…. it is yuge I promise!

    vor2 (0ed5f0)

  24. Well when yeargh is the sane democrat?

    narciso (d1f714)

  25. shipwreckedcrew, good points.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  26. What a display of unprincipled hackery we are seeing here frothed by Trumpkins.

    SPQR (81acd8)

  27. Going forward, reduced regulation or fiscal policy could be used to fairly encourage all companies to maintain or increase their presence in the USA. Obviously these local deals are problematic. I’d even go to the point of outlawing targeting benefits to particular businesses and instances. Not only does it reek of favoritism and lead to a flight to the bottom, but it would seem to run afoul of equal protection.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  28. In the Senate that legislation is going to require 60 votes to close debate.

    “Point of order, Mr Senate President, but this is nomination-related and needs only a simple majority!”

    [Senate President makes ruling]

    Losing side: “I appeal the decision.”

    Senate President: “This appeal is by majority vote. The clerk will call the roll.”

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  29. To make it clear, all the nuclear option needs is 50 Republicans

    51 if everyone shows up.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  30. Nuke ’em!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  31. Well do we recall the Erickson (who resembles Patton oswald more and more) when she decided to endorse trump, last spring

    narciso (d1f714)

  32. Just say “no!” to hissy fits.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  33. Level temper tantrum, it was full macho grande

    narciso (d1f714)

  34. He’s never impressed me much, narciso.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  35. Now it looks like Fallon , le thatcherite, may defeat le pen and then on to either macron or valls

    narciso (d1f714)

  36. Never trumpers might crush on her, but history suggest she falls sway under Booker. Some photog actually had a semi salacious shot of her and Allan West at a BBQ before the 2012 elections.

    urbanleftbehind (c51a53)

  37. What a terrible thing happened last night at that Oakland rave.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  38. Who could have been the U.S. Fallon? I always thought Sark was Pawlenty exponentiated, nothing more.

    urbanleftbehind (c51a53)

  39. The free market works quite well sometimes…

    The end has come for a popular Grand Rapids restaurant known as much for its creative vegan dishes as its progressive business model.
    …Bartertown’s initial menu was described in a 2011 MLive review as an “imaginative” array of veggie, vegan and raw dishes that came with names like Dirty Dirty Beans & Greens and Raw Trash salad.
    In its first year, Bartertown landed on VegNews’ list of “10 Hot New Vegan Restaurants,” sharing the spotlight with eateries in London, Toronto, Vancouver and Las Vegas.

    Not only was the menu unconventional, so was the business model. Bartertown was a collective, which meant there were no bosses, according to Cappelletti. The inspiration for the worker-owned restaurant was based on Cappelletti’s own restaurant experience.”We’re going to have equal pay and equal say across the board. Everyone working together.”
    …(but) Employees would be expected to join the union, Industrial Workers of the World, he said.

    In keeping with the worker empowerment theme, he commissioned a mural depicting Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong and other provocative leaders tackling restaurant duties.

    News of the restaurant’s closure sparked debate on Reddit, a discussion website. Business and politics aren’t an appetizing mix, wrote one person, who had this to say: “I want to pay money for good product, without a side of indoctrination. Hopefully this sends a message: you shouldn’t try running your business on political good will alone.”

    http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2016/11/grand_rapids_worker-run_vegeta.html

    elissa (b10ba6)

  40. No, he want but his handling of the merah matter, the first aq attack on French soil still rankled in some minds.

    narciso (d1f714)

  41. This deal with Carrier may violate some free market principles

    He stood there and said that Carrier would not leave. And they believed it and came to the polls for him. It might have been the thing that put him over the top.

    Principles, schminciples. He made a promise, he had the governor’s ear, and they did the deal. There are promises you can break (like making Mexico pay for the wall fence) but this was pretty much a blood oath.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  42. Dirty Imperialist Motherfvcker Running Dog Organic Green Beans in Long March Sauce… yes!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  43. This is not a nuke option issue. This is legislation separate from a confirmation vote. There is a statute which bars Mattis from office. It was last an issue for George Marshall after WW2, and Congress passed a law amounting to a waiver. So the mechanism to get around the ban exists. But it is legislation the requires 60 votes to close debate (cloture).

    Shipwreckedcrew (b995d7)

  44. Now the soopermexican has actually been worse, if possible?

    In other news, the top men are threatening to renege on repeal.

    narciso (d1f714)

  45. swc–

    Anything is a “nomination” vote if you can get 51 Senators to say that it is.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  46. McConnell did not say “yes” and he did not say “no” when asked if the filibuster was dead on bills also. It may be that only appropriation bills will be (for the time being) still subject to it. It will be a test of Trump’s political capital, though.

    nk (dbc370)

  47. And Trump will lose a lot of political capital if he lets the Senate knife Sessions who supported him from the beginning.

    nk (dbc370)

  48. Ford Lays Down Marker for Trump

    Ford is not asking for company specific relief, it’s asking for repeal of the SkyDragon electric idiocy forcing companies to throw money into the Federal regulatory furnace. I don’t see any crony capitalism involved in Ford’s position at all.

    Rick Ballard (d17095)

  49. Mcturtle is typically blanc mange. Yes its a reasonable request

    Why is insanity the default play, like rd Laing haunts us from the gravem

    narciso (d1f714)

  50. 47… Yes, he will.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  51. I’m smelling a whole lot of if coming off this post.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  52. @37- Right you are, COL. Absolutely terrible.

    Gramps (8a87b4)

  53. Kevin @45 — the solution probably lies in the fact that the Dems don’t control the Senate so they can’t set the calendar.

    The Sessions nomination should be taken up before the Mattis nomination even gets to Committee.

    The GOP can ram through Sessions on a party-line vote, without needing 60 votes.

    Once Sessions is in place, then you put up the Mattis nomination, and dare Schumey and the Dems to block it on a procedural matter. Mattis has a lot of support among Dems in the Senate, and in he military. Once Sessions is off the table and in place, there’s nothing really to be gained from the Dems attempting to block Mattis, and public sentiment will be against him.

    This is where not having a risk-averse politician as President will pay-off. There’s no need to make a deal to get Mattis confirmed — put the Dems to the test, and watch them fold.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  54. ^^^^^^^^^^#likeathreemontecardtable^^^^^^^^^^^

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  55. I wanted to scream when I heard Trump say that the free market had failed. I think that was regarding Carrier but I am not sure. This is my answer: what free market? The government needs to get out of these things and then we can see what the free market does.

    Denver (825261)

  56. oh for the love of string cheese she’s such a simpleton

    This coming from the local village idiot who spends hours here endlessly recycling half-retarded, painfully stupid boilerplate is pretty rich.

    Jack Klompus (f1f212)

  57. Jonah Goldberg points out that since Trump is a pragmatist and not an idealogue or a conservative, it suggests he thinks crony capitalist solutions (like the Carrier deal) work best.

    New York Values, baby.

    DRJ (15874d)

  58. Perhaps the needless Impulse to outsource at every opportunity might be a sign of cronyism. maybe if say David warren replaced him he’d be more concerned.

    narciso (d1f714)

  59. Jonah Goldberg likes to point things out it’s kinda his whole life

    i wouldn’t read too much into it

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  60. DRJ,

    Well no one can say they aren’t traditional.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  61. @57. New York Values, baby.

    Yep.

    “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” – New York’s Jerry Seinfeld ‘Seinfeld’ NBC TV

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  62. ==points out that since Trump is a pragmatist and not an idealogue or a conservative, it suggests he thinks crony capitalist solutions (like the Carrier deal) work best.==

    I read the article a bit differently. Jonah called it a Carrier “Intervention”—recognized it as a clearly political act—used the word “symbolic”– pointed out that some workers benefited—and agreed the politics/optics were great for the new administration. THEN Jonah went on to say it was a bad message for free-market conservatives, and he did a reasonably good job explaining why it was, and why he hoped it was not the start of a trend. And even as Jonah explained that he knew why Carrier happened right now, and that he and most conservatives want crony capitalism severely curtailed in the next 4 years, no where that I read did Jonah say, or suggest, or prove, that Donald Trump “thinks crony capitalist solutions (always) work best”.

    elissa (b10ba6)

  63. Trump’s Carrier intervention may just send an equally loud, but nearly opposite signal: that the White House is going to pick winners and losers, that it can be rolled, that industrial policy is back, that Trump cares more about seeming like a savior than sticking to clear and universal rules, and that there is now no major political party in America that rejects crony capitalism as a matter of principle. After all, don’t expect the GOP to recycle the language it used for the bailouts, Cash for Clunkers, Solyndra, etc., when it comes to Carrier. The RNC belongs to Trump.

    DRJ (15874d)

  64. Jonah:

    .. and that there is now no major political party in America that rejects crony capitalism as a matter of principle.

    For emphasis.

    DRJ (15874d)

  65. there is now no major political party in America that rejects crony capitalism

    When WAS there one?

    There certainly wasn’t one from 2001 – 2008.

    Gabriel Hanna (9b1f4a)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.1423 secs.