He usurped the power of GM’s Board of Directors and ordered its CEO fired. He invented, then rigged bank ‘stress tests’ to dictate which must seek more capital and which ones don’t. He beat Chrysler’s bond holders into submission in deference to the UAW. He’s told banks which took TARP money they could not give it back, even those which don’t need it and want to return it, for the TARP funds give him license to dictate what the banks can and can’t pay their employees.
This week we learned President Obama has “begun serious talks” on how he can acquire the authority to change the compensation practices of the entire financial services industry, even at companies that are not on life support, even those that don’t need or want bailout money. We also learned he told the Chrysler Corporation what it could spend on its advertising budget. Last week he told the State of California that taking measures to trim its multi-billion dollar budget deficit would put at risk the stimulus money it is scheduled to receive. How long will it be before Obama decrees to States what their Governors and legislators shall be paid?
Like an Octopus with 8,000 legs, Obama is sticking the tentacles of the Federal Government ever so deeply into the everyday management decisions of every important sector of the U.S. economy. Soon to come is health care, electricity plants and the energy sector.
Obama was elected in 2008 because Americans wanted the economy fixed. There is a difference between setting policies which stimulate growth, and running the companies that are suppose to produce it. Having usurped the authority of the business sector and now state governments to make everyday management decisions, and having placed in charge White House bureaucrats who have never met nor would understand a profit and loss statement, Mr. Obama had best hope the economy is soaring by November, 2010. If it is not, the voters may just hand a hapless GOP 25 new seats in Congress, and a mandate to tame an Octopus that bit off more than it could chew.
