America’s $28.5 trillion in accumulated debt and likely $3 trillion in debt this year alone speaks loudly to the utter failure of government to be efficient and rational allocator of resources. Yet, in the face of failure, Joe Biden’s is pushing out executive orders “promoting competition in the American economy” as if government is going to manage private enterprise better than the actual CEOs of America’s biggest and most successful corporations.
These executive actions are creeping socialism. They will be harmful to economic growth and American competitiveness going forward. Government has no business meddling in the free market and private enterprise.
During Biden’s announcement of his sweeping attack on private enterprise, he describes himself as a “proud capitalist,” moments before he tried to redefine capitalism as something that needs to be managed by government regulations. It is much like the anti-gun Democrats who claim to support the Second Amendment natural rights of Americans to defend themselves with a firearm before they promote sweeping gun control. Biden’s announcement is strong evidence that his administration is going hard left to please a cadre of progressives pushing an ideology that sees large corporations as inherently a threat to competition.
The truth is that Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are examples of corporations that have made American’s lives better. I am not happy with the woke cancel culture that has infected many of these companies, yet I can’t imagine that leftist government bureaucrats will do anything other than accelerate that trend. No sane economist believes that attacking those successful corporations will miraculously transform the American economy into thousands of smaller versions of successful companies.
If you juxtapose the Big Tech balance sheet to the federal government’s, or any of the entities currently managed by Biden bureaucrats, it is obvious how economically stupid this move really is. One need to look no further than the United States Postal Service (USPS) for an example of a government entity that annually loses billions thanks to mismanagement and misplaced goals. The General Accounting Office (GAO) found that the USPS lost $69 billion over the past 11 years. The same bureaucrats who are losing billions in taxpayer dollars are now saying to American taxpayers and private business owners that they can make some woke anti-business decisions that will work better than the laws of supply and demand.
The Biden Administration announced 72 actions and recommendations that have opened the door for unelected bureaucrats to use government power to attack America’s most successful businesses. According to the order, the Biden Administration “calls on the leading antitrust agencies, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), to enforce the antitrust laws vigorously and recognizes that the law allows them to challenge prior bad mergers that past Administrations did not previously challenge.” The Biden Administration created a brand new “White House Competition Council” to become de facto managers of larger corporations.
This is an ominous development for economic growth and strong evidence that Biden has outsourced his economic policy to leftists on Capitol Hill like socialist Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), in addition to the AOC radical democratic socialist wing in the House of Representatives. The individuals put in charge of this effort are a who’s who of the anti-business left who want to use antitrust law to second guess big business. Adherents to a left wing economic theory, the New Brandeis movement, include Linda Kahn, Biden’s Federal Trade Commission Chair and Tim Wu of the Biden National Economic Council.
The business community who usually bow to whomever is occupying the White House for fear of retribution was not bending over this time for this extreme list of executive orders. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable and National Association of Manufacturers all put out statements criticizing the Biden actions. They understand that this order will empower radicals in government to use federal power to treat America’s most successful corporations like they are run by a bunch of Robber Baron criminals. American consumers should worry that these actions will make America less competitive while hurting consumers.
This may be the most dangerous act of the Biden Administration to date. Conservatives who are not blinded with rage at Big Tech should recognize that this is a naked attack on free market basics. It is time to stand up and strongly oppose this power grab by the Biden Administration to save a largely free market American economy that has produced historically high living standards for all Americans.
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