The party of big business and the rich

For decades Democrats have claimed to represent the little guy, the ordinary working man, and have routinely demonized business in general, and Wall Street, banks, and big business in particular. 

They’ve always painted Republicans as in the pocket of corporate America and the wealthy. 

This is just amazing.  Not that they’ve used this class warfare strategy.  But that they’ve gotten away with it so long.

Today’s Democrats are really the party of big business, Wall Street, banks and the wealthy.  They have been for years.  All you need to do is look at where the funding for the party comes from and who Democrats favor when it comes to regulation and enforcement and bail outs.

It’s simply stunning that this is so obvious.  Yet hardly a day goes by that some Democrat or another is trotting out some worthless, unnecessary bill to right some imagined wrong ostensibly to make “corporate America” do the right thing.  Oh, the media will lap it up and continue promoting the mythology that Democrats are the only party trying to rein in corporate excess and to make the wealthy and corporate executives “pay their fair share.” 

The reality is quite different.

Take the dust up over net neutrality – the Democrats on the FCC want to give big bandwidth providers the authority to charge different rates to different classes of content providers. 

Personally, I don’t have a problem with that. It’s already started. Netflix has already cut a deal with Comcast to insure faster downloads for Netflix customers. 

Now Comcast and lot of the other big broadband providers are in favor of this change from net neutrality, of course. Small businesses and startups are generally opposed, as are most Republicans, because they fear the big companies – like Comcast – will force smaller companies into a non-competitive “slow lane” unless they are willing to pay more. 

This would favor big businesses that have the resources to pay more for faster downloads, and has the potential to put some small businesses and their end users at a competitive disadvantage.  As the champions of the little guy, why would Democrats on the FCC be in favor of it?  Could it be that one of the largest fund raisers for Democrats in recent years runs Comcast? Do you think? 

Then there’s the whole immigration debate.  While most of the press has been focused on those mean old Republicans standing in the way hard working – albeit illegal – immigrants, and what they see as praise-worthy unilateral suspension of immigration rules by Holder and Obama, you have to look at who benefits from guest worker programs and the pull-back on enforcement.

Here’s a hint:  it’s not just the illegal immigrants.   

In fact, this Administration – and Democrats in general – are taking credit for “compassion” when they are really, and consciously, doing what big business wants, but hiding that from the public.

Big business wants cheap labor. Deep-pocketed tech giants and others also want vastly expanded H-1B allowances – from the current 65,000 to about 180,000 a year – something Democrats were willing to swallow in exchange for other immigration provisions with higher PR value.   

Like a path to virtual amnesty, which plays well politically to the Hispanic community. 

I’m puzzled by this paradox:  How can Democrats be so “concerned” about the loss of American jobs when at the same time they want to legalize up to 11 million people who came here illegally to take some of those jobs?  Millions of Americans remain out of work; what purpose is there then to increase the size of the potential workforce? 

Spare me the “jobs no Americans want” BS.  Look at practically any construction site – do you think all those Spanish speaking laborers are there because there are no American construction workers available?  The reason so many illegal immigrants are employed in America is because they will work for less, plain and simple. That’s why employers hire them, and often a lot of them.

I guess Democrats expect that out-of-work Americans will vote for Democrats anyway to keep their benefits going, so they’ve moved on to corner the Hispanic vote. 

So here’s another paradox:  If Democrats are so concerned about everyone having the right to a “living wage” why are they willing to allow employers to hire illegal immigrants to work for far less? 

Recently, this Administration cut the financial penalties almost by half for businesses who hire illegal immigrants.  And who are these businesses?  Mainly big businesses, like large agribusiness conglomerates, big manufacturers and the like.  When the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – the mouthpiece for the biggest businesses in America – aligns with Democrats on immigration reform, that tells you something.

Need more proof? Look at the bail outs.  GM and Chrysler.  The big banks.  Wall Street heavy hitters like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan.  Talk about the 1%.  Talk about the ultra-rich and the ultra-powerful.  And Democrats are the party of the little guy? 

Consider ObamaCare.  Sure, there were Democrat gifts to their traditional special interests.  Yet the biggest gifts of all went to the very same boogeymen Obama claimed his legislation was designed to restrain – the biggest insurance companies, hospital management groups and big pharma.  Hell, Democrats let these same groups, and other direct beneficiaries of the law like AARP, actually write parts of the Affordable Care Act. 

Far from being adversaries, they were all in cahoots together. 

Insurers positively salivated over the prospect of millions of new customers forced to buy expanded policies at higher rates and with much higher deductibles, partially subsidized by Federal dollars for many.  Plus, insurers were essentially guaranteed not to take a financial hit if things didn’t work out as planned.  What’s not to like about that? 

Hospital management groups thrilled at the possibility that more people would come in with insurance and potentially increase their overall revenue.  Kaiser Permanente got on board early and continues to trumpet the merits of ObamaCare to any and all.  If they were taking a big hit, do you think they’d still be so vocal and public in their support?    

AARP liked ObamaCare because they thought it would boost their prescription-drugs-by-mail business.  They also expected to pump up sales of their Medicare supplement plans when the law essentially forced people 65 and older off their employer-paid plans and dumped them into crappy Medicare coverage that practically requires a supplemental plan. 

Finally, big pharma got a pass. They dodged the bullet on having their prices controlled, or being subject to negotiation by the exchanges.

And who got hurt in all this? Why, honest, hardworking Americans who paid a lot more for a lot less; small businesses who saw their insurance rates skyrocket; private-sector employees who saw a bigger chunk of their paychecks taken to offset higher premiums, to name a few. Then there were all the folks 65 and older kicked off their company plans and forced into Medicare and additional costs for Medicare supplemental plans.  Let's not forget health care providers expected to handle more patients for less money. 

Just remember, this bill passed with exclusively Democrat support.

Last but not least, let’s look at the Democrat push to raise the minimum wage.  Does this hurt big businesses?  Nope – most of them are already paying well above minimum wage.  They are largely unaffected.  Who gets hurt?  Well, small businesses mainly, like restaurants, fast-food joints and other places that hire unskilled, entry-level folks.

Democrats like to chastise outfits like McDonalds and other fast-food businesses as “big” profitable companies built on the backs of low-paid employees.  What they fail to mention is that a lot of the McDonalds, Burger Kings, Pizza Huts and others they lump together are franchise operations – where the franchise owner works alongside his or her employees every day.  Trust me, unless somebody owns a bunch of Manhattan Bagel or McDonalds franchises, the owner’s not getting rich; he or she is probably working long hours behind the counter taking your order to eke out a living.

Talk to somebody who owns a single fast-food franchise sometime and see for yourself.  I have.  They aren’t living high.  Most are just breaking even at best.  Raise their employee costs and it means they can pay fewer people.  Which means they have to work even longer hours themselves.  Or shut down completely and put all their employees out of work. 

So much for helping the little guy. 

Wherever you look, the supposed party of the little guy, the protector of honest, hard-working citizens, is actually the party deep in the pockets of big business and the ultra-rich. 

There’s a very old saying about hypocritical Prohibition-era politicians who were “dry in the mouth and wet in the pocket.”

That’s what today’s Democrat party is.  They talk about helping small business. They talk about helping honest, hard-working people get ahead. They talk about helping American workers get good paying jobs.  They talk about having corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share.

But it’s all bullshit.

They’ve thrown in their lot with big business and the mega rich.  Small businesses and honest, hardworking Americans be damned.  All you have to do is look at the legislation they support, the regulations they enforce and the laws they ignore.    

You’ll see the fingerprints of big business and the ultra-rich all over those.