Theodicy

Conjured
The tragedy of the Obama Presidency is that it ignored the supply side: the producers, the risk-takers, the salary earners who put in 50 and 60 hours a week to get ahead. They have been battered by Washington, and no matter how much government tries to conjure growth with more spending and easier monetary policy, businesses won't produce and workers won't work if government threatens to confiscate returns. (WSJ, 7/27/2012)


"Confiscate returns." What a great expression! RedStateVT has believed for a while now that businesses have been standing pat, waiting for a more friendly government. Meanwhile Obama has believed that the inherent greed of capitalist business owners would eventually cause them to begin hiring and spending, spurring the economy and generating more tax revenue for him to redistribute. Guess who is winning? 


Meanwhile, the following article reminds us of how Obama and Liberals target certain businesses for the sole purpose of raising revenue for their programs. Tanning salons, cigarette manufacturers or medical device companies, the objective is to pick on an industry without strong political connections or that manufactures or provides a disagreeable (to the Left) product or service. 


An Indiana-based medical equipment manufacturer says it's scrapping plans to open five new plants in the coming years because of a looming tax tied to President Obama's health care overhaul law. Cook Medical claims the tax on medical devices, set to take effect next year, will cost the company roughly $20 million a year, cutting into money that would otherwise go toward expanding into new facilities over the next five years. "This is the equivalent of about a plant a year that we're not going to be able to build," a company spokesman told FoxNews.com. He said the original plan was to build factories in "hard-pressed" Midwestern communities, each employing up to 300 people. But those factories cost roughly the same amount as the projected cost of the new tax. 


"In reality, we're not looking at the U.S. to build factories anymore as long as this tax is in place. We can't, to be competitive," he said. Company executive Pete Yonkman first revealed the scuttled plans in an interview with the Indianapolis Business Journal. The company later confirmed the decision to FoxNews.com. The Affordable Care Act imposed a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices beginning in 2013. It is projected raise nearly $30 billion over the next decade. (Foxnews.com, 7/27/2012)


Violated
Before the vote this week, the Energy and Commerce Committee released a report on the Solyndra fiasco for taxpayers, noting that the department's decision to allow other private investors to have their financing paid back before the government's guaranteed loan would be repaid violated the law. (WSJ, 7/27/2012)


In a Republican administration, Solyndra would be the lead story on the news every night. As would Fast and Furious and the White House intelligence leaks. Instead, we get "Mitt Romney offended the Brits."


Speaking of which, Rush Limbaugh reminded us of the backdrop to Romney's comments on British preparedness for the Olympics. A week or two ago, the private security company contracted by the British government for the games admitted that it had not been able to hire all of the personnel it had expected to. A reasonable person would, therefore, conclude that they might not be "prepared." 


Which is what Romney said. 


Which apparently was offensive...to the American media we guess.