If President Obsma wants to says that Republican congressional leaders are using the federal debt ceiling “as a gun against the heads of the American people to extract tax breaks for corporate jet owners, or oil and gas companies that are making billions of dollars because the price of gasoline has gone up so high,” Timothy Carney suggests in a Washington Examiner article that the GOP employ some populism of its own.
So, on debt talks, if Obama can focus on tiny quirks in the tax code — such as five-year depreciation for corporate jets as opposed to seven-year depreciation for commercial jets — why don’t Republicans declare war on corporate welfare, putting the president in the position of defending his Reverse-Robin Hood policies? Obama wants to soak the rich by raising their taxes? Why not soak big business by taking away their taxpayer-funded goodies?
Start with the handouts such as billions in direct grants, in the name of “green energy,” to big, well-connected companies like Florida Power & Light. Then there are the green energy loan guarantees, also enriching revolving-door lobbyists and Big Business.
Along the same lines, Republicans could block this year’s reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, a corporate-welfare agency that Obama has been steadily expanding. A majority of all of Ex-Im’s loans and long-term guarantees subsidize Boeing sales. Banks love this agency, too, because it provides private profit and socialized risk.
Imagine Republicans running to protect taxpayers and reduce the debt by abolishing Ex-Im, while Obama stands with Boeing, GE and Halliburton in preserving this Fannie Mae for manufacturers.
Speaking of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Republicans should try to end those sinkholes. Let Obama, the Realtor lobby and the banks stick up for corporate welfare. Ending ethanol supports would be another no-brainer.
But it’s not just handouts Republicans should target. Many regulations serve as gifts to Big Business and theft from small businesses and consumers. The individual mandate in health insurance is the most obvious example, but the Mattel-backed Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act — a death sentence to small toymakers — is one of many other regulatory robberies that a populism-fueled GOP would target.
Republicans could reshape the debt debate by showing that Big Government is often a way of protecting Big Business from competition and transferring wealth from ordinary taxpayers to whoever has the best lobbyist.
