Conspiracy theorists unite. In
President Barack Obama and his platform, you apparently will
have plenty of room to say, “I told you so.”
Up front, I haven’t yet met anyone
who voted for Barack Obama…though there are a few acquaintances
that I suspect. But then, I’ve never met anyone who voted for
Bill Clinton the first time, let alone the second time. Maybe
that’s why I woke up November 5 feeling like a citizen without a
country.
If you’re a believer in socialism
parading as humanitarianism and the Golden Rule, there’s no need
for you to read on.
Likewise, you can stop here if
you happen to believe any criticism of the president-elect stems
from racial roots and bias. I could care less about the race or
gender of this nation’s leader. What I care about is what I
perceive their value system, world-view and leadership to be.
The voters I know are much the same.
If you believe in
capitalism—unfettered competition by which you enjoy the
benefits of your own ambition and ability, not corruption and
greed masquerading as capitalism—it’s impossible to rationalize
electing a President whose platform is so diametrically opposed
to that. Just consider some
of the issues most pertinent to cattle producers (Obama stance
taken from Real Leadership for Rural America, from the Obama
Campaign):
Packer Ownership
Obama will push for legislation that bans packer ownership
of cattle. Though it’s always convenient to blame the packers
and to rail about captive supplies, countless credible studies
continue to support the fact that on average, the marketplace
has remained stronger than it would have if packers, feedlots
and producers were limited in deciding how best to produce,
manage and market the products in which they assume risk.
Renewable Fuels Mandate
Obama’s all for it. In fact, Obama was the only Democratic
presidential candidate to co-sponsor and actively campaign to
establish the nation’s first federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS),
which is now law. According to the Obama Campaign, “He and Joe
Biden believe it is imperative that Congress adopt theSenate-passed
proposal to increase the RFS to 36 billion gallons by 2022. They
will seek to surpass these targets and establish a requirement
to produce at least 60 billion gallons of biofuels, including
cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel, by 2030.”
Yeah, increased international
demand and equity fleeing the financial markets to commodities
had plenty to do with the run-up in commodity input costs. But,
when you effectively establish a price floor to corn prices with
ethanol subsidies, you necessarily place one industry at a
competitive disadvantage to another.
Forced Unionization
It's no secret that unions raised a staggering sum of money
in support of Obama. As a Senator, one of the few things Obama
accomplished, or voted on for that matter, was co-sponsoring the
Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Among other things, that act
would force employers to recognize unionization whenever a
majority of employees decided they wanted to unionize.
Closer to home, try this on for size. Last summer the United
Farm Workers pressured Whole Foods to abandon buying product
from Country Natural Beef (CNB), a rancher-owned cooperative,
claiming CNB beef was fed at a feedlot – Beef Northwest (BNW)
Feeders – that wasn’t allowing its employees to unionize.
According to Stacy Davies of the
Roaring Springs Ranch, a CNB member, neither the rancher-owned
cooperative nor BNW have encouraged or discouraged the feedlot
employees from unionizing.
“The workers at BNW provide superb care to our livestock while
they’re at the feedlot. We believe those workers have the right
to the same freedoms and choices the rest of us have,” explains
Davies, on behalf of CNB. “In this issue our sympathies are
totally with the workers, who need to have a fair, credible
democratic manner to choose whether they want organized
representation or not. We will support they decision to unionize
or not to unionize.” What
CNB wants is for the BNW workers to be able to decide on their
own. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that the majority of
workers there don’t want to unionize, but here’s the union
claiming they must. CNB is caught in the middle, having to fight
a fight that’s not theirs, in order to preserve a hard-won
market that is. Folks close
to Washington affairs say Obama will likely try to renegotiate
the North American Free Trade Agreement, as well as other trade
pacts currently on the table to insert union demands. Some of
those key trading partners intend to walk away if that’s the
case.
There’s obviously nothing intrinsically wrong with unions, nor
the desire of some to be represented by them. Forcing employers
and employees into it is another matter, though.
It’s also hard to dispute the growing irony. Unions supposedly
want what’s best for workers, more jobs and more pay, yet their
demands over time have plenty to do with some of this nation’s
largest industries standing at the threshold of bankruptcy.
Think here of what used to be the nation’s Big Three auto
manufacturers. Think here of airlines that existed not so long
ago. The list goes on.
Looking for the Future
My feeling of disenfranchisement has lots less to do with the
fact Obama was elected than the realization that only a minority
of my fellow countrymen apparently still believe in the tenets
upon which this country was founded and built.
Of course, consider that there were
16.4 million fulltime equivalent workers for state and local
government, according to the 2007 U.S. Census. Add in the 2.4
million federal employees cited in 2002 Census (last data
available), and you’re talking 18.4 million. That’s about 13.0%
of the civilian work force (basis 2006 U.S. Census Bureau).
Now consider, acccording to the
most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, “Nearly half of
all domestic government spending (excluding interest on the
federal debt) went to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,
which accounted for $1.16 trillion. The one-year increase in
spending for these three programs was approximately $170 for
every person living in the United States.
“The government spent $739 billion
on retirement and disability. Of that amount, 80 percent, or
$594 billion, went to Social Security. Social Security was
comprised of retirement insurance payments ($350 billion),
survivors insurance ($107 billion), disability insurance ($99
billion) and supplemental security income payments ($38
billion). “The remaining
federal dollars spent on retirement and disability went to
civilian government workers’ retirements ($59 billion), military
retirements ($36 billion) and veterans’ benefits ($34 billion).”
The point of all of this being that
lots of folks depend heavily and directly on government for all
or part of their livelihoods.
This comfort with federal government
as savior and provider of all things has reached the point that
few seemed to even flinch November 10 when the U.S. government
assumed partial ownership of American International Group (AIG),
the giant and financially beleaguered insurer. That was in
return for another $40 billion in government aid, $150 billion
all together.
Seeing the government so publicly taking a stake in a private
sector institution does more than smack of centralization and
government control. It should worry anybody who believes in the
freedoms that have enabled democracy and yes, capitalism with
its warts and all, to flourish in America.
Benjamin Franklin, who knew
something about government’s flexing their muscles, had this to
say: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
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