American Elephants

It is not a good climate for business.  If you are wondering why the job market is not improving, why business is not hiring, why small businesses are shutting their doors, why there are so many vacant storefronts — the number one culprit is uncertainty.

When business is worried about how much their taxes will go up on January 1; when they are unsure about all the new regulations and rules that are being imposed on them; when they don’t know what the new health care laws will mean for them,  what the rules for that will be, and what it will cost;  if card check will pass; and whether they will have to move part or all of their operations overseas — then the reasons for the lack of jobs become clearer.

— President Obama has repeatedly and aggressively led Democrats to attack American business.  He has attacked the Chamber of Commerce as a corporate interest standing against open elections and U.S. Workers.

— He has repeatedly and aggressively attacked health insurers, accusing them of dropping people from their rolls just because they get sick. HHS Secretary Sebelius warned Americas Health Insurance Plans that they had better not tell their customers that their costs were going up because of the new law, and that a report in the Wall Street Journal that McDonalds might drop the limited benefits for 30,000 workers was flat-out wrong . (No it wasn’t).

— Treasury Secretary Geithner said that U.S. oil and natural gas producing companies “should not receive federal subsidies in the form of tax breaks because their businesses contribute to global warming” before Congress last Wednesday.

— Obama has told drug and insurance companies that he will hold them accountable for the prices they charge and the harm they cause.  He has promised to allow Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers for cheaper prices.  With less revenue from Medicare, drugmakers may begin charging more for drugs sold outside the program.  Lower profits mean less money for R&D, and fewer new drugs on the market.

— Obama promised, during the campaign, to try to bankrupt the coal industry, which generates over half of our electricity.  Environmentalists are a major voting block for Democrats, and the EPA is working to shut down coal-fired power plants and coal producers.

— Obama has claimed that doctors are making decisions about your treatment based on the fee payment schedule rather than what is best for the patient.  He has suggested that Doctors look at the reimbursement system and see that they would make more money if they took the kid’s tonsils out rather than give them an antibiotic.

— Obama unceremoniously took over General Motors and Chrysler, making GM a ward of the state, and giving Chrysler to Fiat.  In the process he shuttered the private businesses of hundreds of car dealers whose only sin was that they purchased automobiles from the car companies to sell on their own lots.  He simply decided that there should be fewer car dealers.

— By slapping a moratorium and new safety regulations on the oil drilling industry in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama not only shut down offshore drilling, but shuttered all sorts of businesses around the Gulf that are dependent on the drilling industry.  The Interior Department has continued to delay issuing drilling permits, further strangling the industry.

Why do you suppose business and industry would feel uncertainty?  Why would they not be investing their savings in expanding their businesses?  Why would they be reluctant to hire? Should be obvious.

In Europe, the EU has imposed all sorts of rules to protect employees from the possibility that employers might take advantage of their employees. The extensive  rules have made it very hard to fire a bad employee.  Because it is so hard to fire a bad employee, European businesses are very slow to hire, slow to expand, and economic growth has slowed significantly.   But we don’t learn from the experience of others either.