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Washington Prowler
Funny Business
Corporations happily going along with Obama.
White House sources say that they are pleased with the initial rollout of President Obama’s “Startup America” program, which they say will focus on encouraging American businesses to speed up investments in manufacturing, information technology, green technology, bio-sciences. A stated goal of the program is to encourage those companies that are startups to do so in economically distressed areas of the country.
U.S. business coalitions, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, which have roundly criticized the Obama Administration’s handling of the economy and its anti-business rhetoric and policies, are supportive of the program, and a number of member companies, such as IBM, Intel, HP, GE, Google, among many others, are committed to participating, says the White House. The program is being overseen by former AOL founder Steve Case.
But because much of the program will have ties inside the Obama White House, the Commerce Department, and other Obama agencies, White House sources say, Obama’s political operation will be able to monitor — and they hope influence — political giving for the 2012 election cycle from those companies.
“Technically, we are all on the same team now, so why would a company that is working with us so closely on ‘Startup America’ or some of the other ‘pro-business’ projects we’ve been announcing want to give financial support for the campaigns of Republicans?” says a White House policy staffer who will shortly be moving to a new job at the Democratic National Committee’s expanding 2012 campaign operation. “It’s one more way to engage corporate America. We know many of the executives are predisposed to Democrats, this is just a way to build more connections.”
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Melvin| 2.2.11 @ 7:39AM
I guess maybe it could be said that a large percentage of Corporate America is no longer Corporate for America.
With these whole world trade thing that the new world order has created, Corporations at least here are no longer beholden with allegiance to a particular country.
Right now this Country has the highest Corporate income tax in the industrialized world. Love em, hate em, Corporations loyalties lie with the stock holders and necessarily not with the nation. And as much as I hate to admit it to a certain extent I cannot blame them for going off shore.
Will this ever change, I don't know, I'm not a CEO, there are those that post regularly here maybe could fill in the blanks in how we as a nation could reverse this trend, if at all.
George S| 2.2.11 @ 10:04AM
Abolish the corporate income tax. This gives Congress less tax regulatory leverage (i.e., exemptions, credits) over corporations. GE pays nowhere near 35 percent of profits... that's why these companies jump through hoops to fund Democrats to leave them alone.
john| 2.6.11 @ 2:51PM
Corporate tax is a hidden tax on the people, where do you think corporations get the money to pay this tax????
Alan Brooks| 2.2.11 @ 4:00PM
The main issue is: corporations no longer conserve anything, so you can only call yourselves rightwingers-- not conservatives.
If AS were to advertize itself as "a Rightwing, GOP-leaning magazine", that would be the HONEST thing to do.
But such would be asking too much.
Negro X | 2.2.11 @ 8:35PM
AB,
As would asking you to at least once post something intelligent.Alas it will never happen. What is it that you find so mesmerizing about obama's feces?
Alan Brooks| 2.2.11 @ 9:31PM
"What is it that you find so mesmerizing about obama's feces?"
Mr, um, N.X.,
is obama's feces a sign of a calm poster, or an emotional one?
Alan Brooks| 2.2.11 @ 9:32PM
"obama's feces"
Even a 2 yr old would do better than "obama's feces".
gilbert| 2.2.11 @ 10:07PM
garbage
Negro X | 2.2.11 @ 11:06PM
AB,
You adore everything he does and says, I'm trying to understand the root cause of your fetish worship of him.
Be honest, you know you would willing serve him as his personal human toilet if asked.
Your moronic incoherent blubberings are the sign of a person in dire need of help.
Louis Jenkins| 2.2.11 @ 7:48AM
And why should corporate amerika be with Obama in this issue. The bank execs are getting the bonuses, the stock market is soaring, although how I am unsure, and the largest corporations are getting handouts from Obama. So the deck is stacked against the common USA man and woman. We're worried about how to make ends meet, putting food on the table, and gas in the car. Sounds like Obama will be a shoe-in for the Democratic nomination in 2012. And a Republican nomination that we can count on is still unknown.
Alan Brooks| 2.2.11 @ 4:04PM
"And a Republican nomination that we can count on is still unknown."
You don't say! why, how COULD that be?? what with all the fine GOP wannabes just lining up to fill the Gipper's shoes. Even after 22 years...
Alan Brooks| 2.2.11 @ 11:09PM
LOOK AT ME!, PAY ATTENTION TO ME! I DEMAND TO BE RELEVANT. I'M IMPORTANT!
MOM! Those people on the internet are ignoring me again, make them stop!
Alan Brooks| 2.2.11 @ 11:16PM
Tim*/Clint,
they can look up your IPO, so ID theft doesn't do anything for you.
Ken (Old Texican)| 2.2.11 @ 8:17AM
Melvin, you hit the nail on the head...heh...or your fingers around the pimple.
Folks, picture it like this: It is neo-feudalism. In our case, the feudal lords are the giant corporations, and our "king" is doling out the fiefs.
Giant Corporations don't really pay taxes...they pass them through to we peasants in higher prices; merely a cost of doing business.
The peasants also include "small businesses" which have to do business with the giants.
Folks, it is the biggest sucker play ever launched on the American people.
Once you get the concept and terms down, the rest is easy to understand.
Best regards
PJ| 2.2.11 @ 8:32AM
I have to agree w/you totally on this one esp when you wrote "...the feudal lords are the giant corporations, and our "king" is doling out the fiefs." You hit it right on the head!
Besides the classical definition of taxes, I would also include any government interference that adds to the cost of doing business, such as unnecessary regulations & fees.
c. j. acworth| 2.2.11 @ 9:04AM
Right you are, Ken. This is nothing more than another shovel full of crony capitalism, where the politically connected get to suck at the teat to the detriment of true competition, and as a result the approved winners will contribute heavily to their benefactors to keep the spigot of taxpayer dollars open. The Romans called it "clientela". Instead of Startup America, it should be called Satrap America.
Alan Brooks| 2.2.11 @ 4:06PM
"And a Republican nomination that we can count on is still unknown."
You don't say.
You don't say.
You don't say.
"What is it, Madge?"
He don't say, Bob...
David W| 2.2.11 @ 8:24AM
Policies under the Nazis prior to world war II were very anti business. This is why the businesses very quickly moved to support the Nazis and their war effort. Was that wrong? Evil? Perhaps. However, they "knew" which side of the brodt their butter was on. It appears that these same liberally-run companies (especially GE) know that by sucking up to the Democrats (not sure if they would really suck up to the Republicans) they will be able to do several things:
1) kill their competition
2) get subsidies and illegal contracts from the government
3) be able to really screw their customers without having to worry about the government getting mad
4) be able to violate the rules that other companies have to abide by - like waivers for the unconstitutional Obamacare (see #1).
simon templar| 2.2.11 @ 5:22PM
David W..excellent anaylsis and insight. Hey, Alan Brooks..you might want to pay attention to David's comment. You might learn something. As for conservatism..conservative constitutional republicanism does not support mercantilism nor fascism. It does not surprise true conservatives that SOME big corporations and big business interests are lying down with socialist and big government. Alan..you are the idiot..not your Madge and Bob American that you love to ridicule.
Donna| 2.2.11 @ 8:55AM
When has Obama been pro-business except where big union is? He hasn’t. I don’t think there is any trust in Obama by businesses of any size. Otherwise we would be on a better job creation footing. This goes to show how fool hardy the Libs are and how unsophisticated their thinking is when applied to the economy and marketplace. They just think they can buy votes. I don’t think businesses would risk their reputations taking the Obama bribes because we the people will boycott and bankrupt those who are vote whores. At the end of the election when this strategy doesn’t pan out for them, they will of course re-start the rhetoric how bad business people are and can’t be trusted. Truth in fact, businesses can be trusted to vote as Americans and not as entitlement recipients. This will just enrage the libs.
Sam Vaughn| 2.2.11 @ 9:00AM
The people around Obama believe in violent revolution, they believe their time has come. One need only look at Egypt to see what the future portends if leftists get their way. Nothing like "off the hook" printing presses of the world reserve currency (dollar) to light the flames of inflation in "on the edge" third world countries. The Obama regime lit this fire.
Shamus| 2.2.11 @ 9:29AM
Steve Case was able to extract vast sums from the Time Warner deal. How much will he be able to extract from taxpayers?
dac| 2.2.11 @ 10:01AM
Folks, this is textbook corporatism, Mussolini circa 1923-24, during the consolidation of power phase. Thus my name for our "president," Il Duce Negro, the Black Mussolini. It's what he is, and what he does. It's fascism and large corporations are easily co-opted into the fold, to become private in name, but in fact organs of the State's power. There's a great Italian term for this that I can't remember now, but it translates loosely to "quasi-governmental," the concept is clear, has a clear historical precedent, and we'll see if Il Duce Negro is as competent in implementing it as the original Il Duce himself.
Al Adab| 2.2.11 @ 10:22AM
All too many corporations, GE and Archer-Daniels among others come to mind, are all too happy to fall in line with government regulation, demands and subsidies because they provide some competative advantage. It becomes an example of government picking the winners through mandates . CFL's and ethanol are mandates and the companies that make the product profit from government rules. Free markets and competition are good for consumers but not necessarily preferred by the corporations. How and whether we can restore markets is going to be the large, underlying issue in all the budget debate. Stop the central planning. End the product subsidies and let's see where the markets take us.
Thomas Hulting| 2.2.11 @ 10:24AM
The questions that neither The Prowler, nor any of those commenting on this piece, want to raise and answer are: Why are American companies being forced to move off-shore (or, go out of business), and why is it too expensive for them to remain in America? When will someone address the confiscatory taxes (on both the corporations and on the individual employees) and the hugely business-unfriendly regulatory State and Federal systems, with their fees and licensure costs, and their punitive fines and unnecessary oversight costs?
DC| 2.2.11 @ 11:10AM
TH--it's pretty simple: because of the business-unfriendly, punitive regulatory environment, only big businesses can bear such costs, and to the extent they don't want to, they devote resources to gaming or becoming part of the Statist system. It's hard for a totalitarian government to deal with 10,000 small businesses; much easier to regulate the little guys out of business, so you have a much smaller number of large businesses who are more easily turned into "quasi-governmental," as a commenter above state. Think of the mafia analogy--is it easier to shake down 20 or 200 businesses? The larger the 20, the easier they become part of your racket and agree to split the spoils. Of course some of them may move offshore in name, but offshore, while some taxes may be lower, the racket game likely is even worse.
The point, in case anyone's missing it, is to ensure that private resources are primarily devoted to satisfying the State's agenda. That's fascism. That's what this flailing, marginally competent, university totalitarian president wants and EVERY policy he supports, supports that goal. Period.
Thomas Hulting| 2.2.11 @ 2:26PM
D.C. I was looking for something akin to: American businesses, and their employee's jobs, are being driven off-shore because of confiscatory taxation (on every level), and because of oppressive and punitive regulation. You went further, citing the Statist (Marxist) Fascist motivations of the Ruling Class. Outstanding analogy!
Thanks.
mames| 2.2.11 @ 10:25AM
I believe the text book definition of corporate and government alliances is called fascism. As far as I am concerned the CEOs of these companies are turncoats and their share holders should vote them out of office. Any capitalist worth his salt would tell 'bama and crew to go pound sand.
JayPitsby| 2.2.11 @ 12:06PM
"Startup America"! We can just call it the SA. I like it.
Steve in Pittsburgh| 2.2.11 @ 12:38PM
Sh*tty America.
GENE HAUBER| 2.2.11 @ 4:22PM
GIVING A BRIBE IS "BUILDING A CONNECTION".
DON'T THESE CRIMINALLY INCLINED DEMS EVER GIVE UP ON THE SINISTER AND CORRUPT THINKING.
WAKE UP CEO'S, OBAMA GIVES NOTHING AWAY WITHOUT
CHAINS ATTACHED.........YOUR DAY WILL COME TO SELL YOUR SOULS TO HIM. ... BET ON IT.
DC | 2.2.11 @ 5:00PM
The startups will be off shoots of the big ones so they can get taxpayer money too. The investments in manufacturing, green technology, information technology, and biosciences will be in some other country. If these corporations were interested in creating jobs why haven't already done it instead of going overseas.
simon templar| 2.2.11 @ 5:29PM
Another lie from a liberal....."We know many of the executives are predisposed to Democrats.."
Big business gives equally to both partys every single election. The fact and reality is they are predisposed to whoever they see taking power that will act in thier interest and are more than willing to make fostian bargains at very turn if necessary. When our founding fathers said WE, the People, they meant it. They were not taking about the interest of corporate entities.
FREE tea| 2.2.11 @ 10:48PM
--PLEASE stop pitching the false paradigms.
PLEASE.
One day we may very well learn that Obama's
mother was a Harriman ---much like Clinton's
shady bloodline issues. Need we go further?
DO the homework on this one.
PLEASE. It's all PURE Tavistock Institute 'reality creation'
and we ALL now it.
NOT UNTIL the Globalist/Bankster 'eugenics
dreamland' boys, both here and in London, and ALLL
their set-up TAX FREE foundations (i.e. our
REAL government) ---are called out, rigorously investigated, prosecuted and their
machinery finally dismantled -----including
Luciferian (TRUE! check it out!)
capstone Freemasonry and its stranglehold
on upper-echelon government, military and law enforcement, the deadly 'World Council of Churches', our entire NEA establishment, media,
Hollywood, etc. etc. etc. (THINK Seperation
of Church and State ---cubed on this!) ----
NOT ONLY will nothing change ---virtually one and all are slated for extinction...
-------------AGAIN, PLEASE!
emo| 2.3.11 @ 7:27PM
This sounds a lots like Nixon's 1972 shakedown of US Corporations. Prediction: Obama will be impeached for crimes far far worse than Clinton was impeached for in 1998.
shipley130| 2.4.11 @ 5:52PM
Tra-la-la-boom dee-ay
I'll take your corporation away
and while you're standing there
I'll tax your underwear
العاب بنات | 4.11.12 @ 4:08PM
it is good