Obama's Thug Capitalism

Since Obamacare has been signed into law (I'd love to get my hands on one of those 22 pens; may be worth as much as the hair from Hitler's mustache someday), a number of companies have announced a writedown in profits:

On top of AT&T's $1 billion, the writedown wave so far includes Deere & Co., $150 million; Caterpillar, $100 million; AK Steel, $31 million; 3M, $90 million; and Valero Energy, up to $20 million. Verizon has also warned its employees about its new higher health-care costs, and there will be many more in the coming days and weeks....

So what are the Democrats going to do, now that their health care bill is being revealed as an economic nuke? Why, they're going to shut up the naysayers, of course:

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke took to the White House blog to write that while ObamaCare is great for business, "In the last few days, though, we have seen a couple of companies imply that reform will raise costs for them." In a Thursday interview on CNBC, Mr. Locke said "for them to come out, I think is premature and irresponsible."

Meanwhile, Henry Waxman and House Democrats announced yesterday that they will haul these companies in for an April 21 hearing because their judgment "appears to conflict with independent analyses, which show that the new law will expand coverage and bring down costs."

Theses guys can't handle the truth. To them, a balance sheet ("a what? They didn't teach us about those in Social Engineering 101!") is irresponsible propaganda. An announcement, required by law (whatever the Democrats decide the law is today, of course), that people's stock will lose value is a "conflict in judgement" with the administration, for which one must respond to Congress.

How much longer can the Democrats stick their fingers in the dikes of the truth? The MSM may not report the crushing blow that is coming to our economy, but by current law, publicly held companies must.

Unless Waxman & Co. can bully them into silence. It's better for average Americans to lose billions in investments than for Democrats to be revealed as frauds, I suppose. Unless Waxman feels he's got a no-lose situation here - he'll punish AT&T for talking, and when they don't talk, and their stock plummets, he's punish them for fleecing their shareholders. (UPDATE: Powerline has copies of documents sent to AT&T "requesting their personal testimony". There's a method to this madness, call it The Unforgiven Gambit)

It's called thug capitalism. See how well it works in Russia, or Venezuela. That's our future, if Waxman, Obama, Pelosi, and the mainstream media get their way. Let's hope the executives of the above companies have what it takes to stand up to these crooked bastards...


Related:

"Who is the public? What does it hold as its good? There was a time when men believed that 'the good' was a concept to be defined by a code of moral values and that no man had the right to seek his good through the violation of the rights of another. If it is now believed that my fellow men may sacrifice me in any manner they please for the sake of whatever they believe to be their own good, if they believe that they may seize my property simply because they need it - well, so does any burglar. There is only this difference: the burglar does not ask me to sanction his act."
~Hank Rearden

"Madam, when we'll see men dying of starvation around us, your heart won't be of any earthly use to save them. And I'm heartless enough to say that when you'll scream, "But I didn't know it!" – you will not be forgiven."
~Francisco D'Anconia

"I refuse to apologize for my ability - I refuse to apologize for my success - I refuse to apologize for my money. If this is evil, make the most of it. If this is what the public finds harmful to its interests, let the public destroy me. This is my code - and I will accept no other."
~Hank Rearden