THE WAY THINGS ARE – AT 9:50 A.M. ET:  Apparently, change we can believe in, isn't. 

The great Michael Barone says that crony capitalism is back in Washington, despite Obama's pledge to banish it.  From the Washington Examiner:

Crony capitalism is now the order of the day in the United States. The government and the United Auto Workers own General Motors and Chrysler, which aren't likely to pay back their billions in TARP money any time soon, if ever. Meanwhile the government tells Americans to stop driving Toyotas.

The government was going to remake the health care sector, and so Billy Tauzin and other health care industry lobbyists were busy in the White House cutting deals to keep their clients above water. The government was going to remake the energy sector, and utility CEOs and lobbyists have been busy flaunting their green credentials.

As my Washington Examiner colleague Timothy Carney has been documenting, Big Business has been busy lobbying Big Government for "reforms" that serve big companies' interests. Wal-Mart backs a health care mandate, Philip Morris shapes tobacco regulation, General Electric is setting up a joint venture to trade carbon offsets.  Wasn't that Enron's line of work back in the day?

And...

The picture is not pretty. Government's pets or, in the president's words, "savvy businessmen," use government to get policies that will give them competitive advantages and stifle smaller competitors. Pleasing their masters in government is now absorbing the psychic energy of CEOs who used to concentrate on meeting consumers' needs in order to make profits.

Back in the 1940s, there was an excuse for crony capitalism -- there was a war on. And FDR had a gift for picking people who, like Kaiser, delivered the goods. Today that excuse is not available, and it's far from apparent that Obama has that gift.

COMMENT:  Harry Truman once said that 10% of Americans had lobbyists in Washington to represent them.  The president, he said, had to watch out for the other 90%.  This president claims to be watching out, but in fact, as the machine politician he is, he goes along with the old ways, as long as his party benefits.

February 14, 2010