Gay Conservative

Obama rammed the stimulus down everyone’s throats by using scare tactics–”if we don’t pass this, you’ll lose everything you have.” He’s trying to force cap-and-tax and universal healthcare on us the same way–”your healthcare providers will rob you blind!” and “global warming must be stopped before we destroy our only home!” He’s now taking his fiscal idiocy a step further by proposing legislation that will stop financial companies from getting too big.

My understanding of this new set of “rules” is that all financial companies will be required to limit what they do in the event that they collapse so that they don’t “pose a systemic risk” as Obama puts it. They’ll do this by imposing hefty penalties on companies that become too big to fail as they see it; it will mean that any financial powerhouse that gets too big in the eyes of the government will have to pay fines and fees that will supposedly undo all of the profits made by taking those risks. It will also strip certain companies of their rights. Companies like GE, which is in both finance AND commerce, would not be allowed to continue to operate in both ends of the industry. So much for the American dream.

Obama says his aim is to make it less appealing to get so big that failure would cost too much to be worth it to the CEO’s and other top names in these companies. In reality, this is socialism through and through: it’s the attempt to forcibly equalize everyone. What he’s basically saying is you can’t take too much risk or become too successful, otherwise you’ll pay through the teeth to make sure you don’t get into too much trouble.

ALL business involves risk, like it or not. That’s the nature of a free market. Starting a business requires that you risk everything you have should something go wrong. It can never be guaranteed or cushioned against failure in any way. Unfortunately, that’s life. When the government steps in and says, “you have to do this, this, this, this and this to avoid having a negative impact on other businesses,” freedom ceases to exist and socialism takes root. We’re up to our eyeballs in it now, and we’re doing little to stop it.

Liberals scream that it’s the lack of regulation that created this mess, thus Obama’s plan is absolutely necessary. HORSEHOCKEY. Bring back the regulation as it was previously and there would be no need for the government to tell anyone that they can’t prosper too much before they have to pay for it. Our little “experiment” in deregulation has failed miserably, just as our foray into the world of making homeownership a right rather than a privilege failed equally as miserably. Stop requiring banks to take on a certain amount of risky debt, stop requiring that they lend to everyone regardless of certain issues, and bring back the previous regulation and there would be no need for putting a cap on how big or intertwined a company can become.

But that wouldn’t play into Obama’s vision for America. I have to ask…where does it stop? Obama didn’t just bail out the banks, he took it a step further and bailed out the auto industry. Bush started that game and it was the worst step he could have taken. Where does it end? When the government has taken control over all industry, commerce and business in America? First they put a cap on the banks, then what? The automakers? Wait, he already did that. Next I suppose it’ll be retail. Wal-Mart can’t be allowed to get so big, because so many depend on the near-minimum-wage jobs the company provides. The government has to step in and stop them from failing. Grocery stores have to be regulated, too, or it might have an impact on other local retail. Oh, and mr. and mrs. small business have to be regulated, too–if they fail, individuals might have to go further to obtain certain services, and now we’ll be impacting the environment.

Where does it stop? When do we draw the line and tell the government they’ve gone too far? When they’ve taken over every aspect of our lives? That’s what we’re on the way to allowing. I work for a financial institution full-time, and that company is led by a man who saw a long time ago just how dangerous the credit default swap and subprime games were. I have a good job and a great boss because of that. I do not want to be limited in how far I can go because the government has decided that the company I work for is too big. It’s not up to anybody to set limits for me. That is MY choice. The Constitution guarantees it.

It’s difficult to see how we got to this point, but it’s not irreversible. If we start right now, it can stop RIGHT HERE.