Want Money Out of Politics? Get Power Out of Government

The Latest from Seton Motley | Less Government | LessGovernment.org
The Latest from Seton Motley | Less Government | LessGovernment.org
High School – Extended

Life is high school – extended.

All of the clique-ish, self-absorbed pettiness of your teen years – amplified and intensified by age, power and money.

See – as but one example: Saturday night’s White House Correspondents Dinner.

Our lack of personal development post-high school – is why our domestic Fascist-Communists are so insistent on getting to our children as early as possible…:

“Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.”

— Vladimir Lenin

See – as but one example: Drag Queen Story Hour for five-year-olds.

One aspect of childhood that never goes away?  Bullies – and the remora who attach themselves to them.

Barring the rule of law being properly drafted and fairly enforced?  Might makes right.

Chairman Mao knew it…:

“Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

In today’s United States – the rule of law is neither properly drafted nor fairly enforced.

Because government – the biggest bully on the planet – doesn’t want proper of fair.

Proper and fair government – impedes corrupt and crony government.

The US Constitution demands that the government be proper, fair – and small.  But small government – can only do small corrupt-and-crony things.

Big corrupt-and-crony – requires big government.

In high school?  You pay to be “friends” with the biggest bully in school – not the president of the Chess Club.

We are supposed to have a Chess Club government.  We instead have a street thug government.

The entirety of the US economy in 2023 was $27.4 trillion.  The federal government spent $6.3 trillion of it.  And the cost to businesses of complying with federal regulations was $3.1 trillion.

That’s more than 34%.  That’s disgusting.  And very, VERY powerful.

Not at all Chess Club.  Very, VERY street thug.

With lots and LOTS of “friend” money paid and spent….

Track Corporate Donations

Who Are the Biggest Organization Donors?

Who Are the Biggest Individual Political Donors?

State and Federal Lobbying Spending Tops $46 Billion After Federal Lobbying Spending Broke Records in 2023

As the late, great Ronald Reagan rightly observed…:

“You can’t be for big government, big taxes and big bureaucracy and still be for the little guy.”

The little guy can’t compete with Big Business in the marketplace – under the best of circumstances.

But when the little guy can’t afford to compete with Big Business for the favors of Big Government?

While Big Business bribes Big Government – to warp the marketplace in their favor?

Things get very ugly for the little guy – VERY quickly.

Big Business Loves Big Government: Cronyism in American Politics

How Big Business Uses Big Government to Kill Competition

How Big Government and Big Business Stick It to Small U.S. Businesses

Big Government and Big Business – form the bully-est clique in school.

And the little guys are on the outside – looking in.  Awaiting their next Big Government beatings.

To wit: The financial sector.

The unholy Big Gov-Big Bank alliance built a housing market of cards – which inevitably collapsed in 2008….

Hey, Barney Frank: The Government Did Cause the Housing Crisis

The Big Banks – cashed in HUGE on Big Government’s idiocy.  Until it destroyed the planet, of course….

The Rise and Fall of NINJA Loans: A Deep Dive into “No Income, No Job, No Assets” Loans

Inside the CDO Market That Catalyzed the Financial Crisis

In 2008 ‘Synthetic CDOs’ Destroyed the Global Economy

In response?  Big Gov pledged to end the Big Banks.  Which anyone paying any attention at all – knew was an absurd, perverse lie.

Big Gov-Big Banks made the crisis.  They were, of course, going to take advantage of the crisis…:

“You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

— Rahm Emanuel

Because in DC – cronyism never dies….

The Size of the Post-2008 Bank Bailout: $29 Trillion

Hard for Big Gov to make Big Banks small – when Big Gov is handing the Big Banks tens of trillions of our dollars.

Meanwhile, there was the “Too Big To Fail” legislation….

How Dodd-Frank Doubles Down on ‘Too Big to Fail’

How Dodd-Frank Helps Large Banks

Dodd-Frank Stole The Recovery By Killing Small-Business Growth

How Dodd-Frank Kills Small Banks and Chokes the Economy

Big Gov was doing the Big Banks’ dirty business then.  And they’re still doing the Big Banks’ dirty business now.

Because duh.

Political Donations: The Big Banks Lead the Pack Once Again

US Bank Lobbyists Ranks Swell to Post-Crisis High

The Big Banks don’t want any competitors – at all.

Big Gov wrote them Dodd-Frank – which murdered their small bank competitors.

Small banks – lent to the little guy.  Big Banks – will not.

The Little Guy Can’t Even Get a $200 Loan Anymore

But nature abhors a vacuum.  And little guys – still need loans.

Enter the payday lender….

Banking and Poverty: Why the Poor Turn to Alternative Financial Services

About as soon as the payday lenders made the scene – the Big Banks sicced Big Gov on them….

Six Federal Agencies Are Investigating Online Payday Lenders – August 8, 2013

New Obama Admin Attack on Payday Lenders – May 16, 2016

Big Gov was awful then – and it is awful now….

Biden Signs Bill to Curb Predatory Lending – July 15, 2021

CFPB Sets June 2022 Effect Date for Payday Lending Restrictions – September 7, 2021

Biden Vetoes Resolution Disapproving of US CFPB’s Small-Business Loan Rule – December 19, 2023

So the Big Banks can afford to bribe the Big Gov bully into utter compliance.

At the expense of anyone in the financial sector – who isn’t a Big Bank.

And, of course, at the expense of all the rest of us – who need a functioning and fair financial sector.

How very DC all of this is.

How very high school all of this is.

The solution to all of this is, of course – MASSIVELY shrink the government.

 

If you have a Chess Club government?

 

Far fewer people will be looking to bribe it.

 

Because it will no longer be worth bribing.