Ronald Wilson Reagan was our heroic, adored, uber-accomplished Fortieth President of these United States.
Reagan understood implicitly things most allegedly intelligent people – charged with solving public policy problems – spend lifetimes getting woefully incorrect.
Reagan then brilliantly distilled them into exquisite sentences that cut through the manure – and made their inherent wisdom mass-understandable.
But one example of Reagan’s genius: “You can’t be for big government, big taxes, and big bureaucracy and still be for the little guy.”
What Reagan was in part discussing – in concept if not in terminology – is cronyism. Big Government – is now huge. The national economy is $20 trillion – the federal government all by its onesies steals and spends $4 trillion of it.
And prior to current, Forty-Fifth President Donald Trump’s massive cutting, the Feds regulated to the tune of $2-trillion-in-compliance-cost more.
That’s $6-trillion-per-annum – nearly 1/3 of our entire economy – in pure, unadulterated just-federal-government power. That is inordinately Big Government.
And Big Government – puts that power on the cronyism auction block. You want government checks cut to your business? Pony up the campaign coin. You want government regulations slammed upon your competitors but not you? Pony up the campaign coin.
Of course, none but the biggest of Big Businesses can afford to bribe Big Government at truly head-turning levels. So the Big Government-Big Business Borg is born. The two titanic entities connect, then intertwine, then merge – until now it’s nigh impossible to tell where Big Government stops and Big Business starts.
A quintessential example of all of this – is the Left’s Internet lie known as Network Neutrality. Perhaps never before has Big Government-Big Business cronyism – been better-dressed-up as “looking out for the Little Guy.”
Senate Democrat Minority Leader – New York’s Chuck Schumer – just said: “We’re in the homestretch in the fight to save net neutrality. Soon, the American people will know which side their member of Congress is on: fighting for big corporations and ISPs or defending small business owners, entrepreneurs, middle-class families and every-day consumers.”
Ahhh…the evil ISPs – the Internet Service Providers. Schumer is looking to again target them with the full brunt of government power and regulatory might.
You know, the evil ISPs – the people who have spent the last two decades spending more than $1 trillion making the Internet possible, then nigh ubiquitous – then lightening fast and getting ever faster.
Yes, some of the ISPs have gotten quite large in the process of creating 1/6th of our entire economy. The likes of AT&T (Market Cap: $201 billion), Comcast (Market Cap: $144 billion) and Time Warner (Market Cap: $74 billion) are all doing very well – because they have created the backbone for about $3-trillion-worth of our economy.
Given the value and wealth they’ve added and created for all of us – their relative worth is…relatively puny.
But Schumer, the Democrats and Leftists everywhere are incessantly demonizing them. And looking to bring the full weight of government down upon them.
Which doesn’t make crony sense. ISPs are allegedly so huge – shouldn’t they be wielding the government cronyism whip?
Not a chance. Because they aren’t nearly as huge as the cronies with their hands on the government-lash-handle.
The Big Businesses that want government to impose Net Neutrality – are WAY bigger than the ISPs.
Google (Market Cap: $707 billion) all by its onesies – is just about bigger than every single ISP combined. And they make nearly all their money – riding on the Internet the ISPs build.
Google doesn’t just bribe government – they buy entire administrations. Google owned the Obama Administration. And it was the Obama Administration that imposed all sorts of draconian, punitive regulations upon the ISPs – many under the banner of Net Neutrality.
And Google LOVES Net Neutrality. When the Trump Administration announced they would be rolling back the Obama Administration’s regulatory assault….
Net Neutrality Backers Fight Back: “Thousands of companies and organizations, including Google, Facebook and Reddit, want you to support the push for keeping the rules.…”
Aha – Facebook (Market Cap: $498 billion). Another single company – that rides upon the Internet the ISPs built – that could buy every single ISP simultaneously.
Who else wants Net Neutrality? Tiny little joints like Apple (Market Cap: $839 billion). And Microsoft (Market Cap: $719 billion).
These are the most massive of Big Businesses. Just the four we’ve mentioned here – have a combined Market Cap of $2.8 TRILLION.
And these are the companies Schumer laughingly refers to as “small business owners.” When demanding the awful regulations these companies want re-imposed – be re-imposed.
These titanic Big Businesses can bribe Big Government – WAY better than the relatively puny ISPs can.
Which is why far too often these titanic Big Businesses get the regulations they want – and the ISPs get the shaft.
God bless Donald Trump and his Administration for going against the Crony-Deep State grain.
Oh: Do any of these draconian, punitive ISP regulations apply to the Internet-riding likes of Google and Facebook, Apple and Microsoft? Heavens no. This is cronyism.
Oh: One of the side effects of these draconian, punitive ISP regulations? The Internet-riding likes of Google and Facebook, Apple and Microsoft – do not have to pay for all the massive Web bandwidth they use.
Which means we Little Guys have to pay oh-so-very-much-more for Internet service – to augment the profits of the likes of Google and Facebook, Apple and Microsoft.
We the Augmenters – are the “small business owners, entrepreneurs, middle-class families and every-day consumers”…Schumer claims he’s defending.
Schumer claims he is defending we Little Guys – by attempting to re-impose the Big Government regulations…preferred by the biggest of Big Businesses ever to exist on Planet Earth.
Does that make any sense to you?
It doesn’t to me either.
This first appeared in Red State.