Reality Slate

It seems that every day, the Obama administration has, yet another, 'plan,' which sends investors running, and job markets shrinking. One is led to ask if this administration has an ideology, that truly has disdain for free markets.

From long before the inauguration, there has been rhetoric from the Obama Administration that simply frightens the free market. As he signs his ideals into law, it seems the President's view of responsibility is to stick it to corporations and small businesses.

'Cap & Trade,' is as most observers know, not helpful to the growth of new business, or in aiding in cleaner air, or energy independence. Cap and trade has been in place, for most E.U. countries, for over a decade. Europe is dependent on the Middle East and Russia for oil, and dependent on Russia for natural gas. Aside from making utilities more expensive, many observers see that the major cities of Europe remain quite dirty and growth has stalled. The European Commission on Financial Affairs shows that actual growth peaked in 1999 and hasn't recovered, even in the larger growing years of 07, and 06' output of goods and services have followed the same pattern, and still the E.U. Parliament discusses new regulation. Still, in spite of the evidence from Europe 'Cap and Trade,' will most likely, become law and our economy will be struck by high prices for fuel, gas, and electricity.

A vast number of jobs could be created by utilizing our own resources. We have abundant, untapped supplies of resources in our country, yet the administration restricts our access to these resources, and spends gigantic amounts of funding on less efficient energy. This excludes the resource rich states, where the development of these forms of energy could create jobs. Once again Obama misses an opportunity to help the free market.

The most damaging of the new administrations proposals, is Card Check, or The Employee Free Choice act. This nefarious act, if passed, will cause untold damage to our economy. In Card Check, a union could impose itself on a company, by obtaining signatures on a card from the half the number of employees in the company plus one. Then, if the company doesn't come to an agreement, with the union, within 120 days, the company is forced into binding third party arbitration. Under existing law, once the correct number of cards have been signed, a silent ballot is the final decision maker for employees to show intention to form or not form a union. If a union is formed by the employees then the final contract of the union contract is voted on again, but both of those employee and employer protections, will evaporate if the bill is made law in it's current form. Can we not see how this could scare employers? Of the five States in the Union with the highest unemployment, four of them are heavily unionized.

One union that has egg on it's face is the United Auto Workers, or U.A.W. They have aided in the pricing of American cars right out of the market. Add stupid government regulation and you have a recipe for disaster. The administration's response is to set higher fuel efficiency standards. So this will make it more difficult for domestic car manufacturers to make a profit, when the highest profit yielding cars are the larger vehicles.

So far in the middle of the first 100 days of the Obama administration, one has to ask if the executive branch wants to further drive us into recession. Or, is the President, so beholden to left wing ideas that he and his administration, can't see the damage that their destructive ideas present. We can hope that neither of these questions are to be answered in the affirmative. We pray that there is not deliberate sabotage or negligent harm. In the meantime, businesses will stand defensively to weather this administration's storm.