It turns out that Vice President-elect Mike Pence is an extremely talented individual. For instance, did you know he can do a pretty convincing impression of George W. Bush?
Unfortunately for America and the Constitution, he also does a pretty convincing “W” impersonation when it comes to abandoning the free market in exchange for personal political benefits, as we witnessed in last week’s intervention involving the Carrier Corporation.
In 2008, as George W. Bush’s time in office was winding down, the Great Recession was picking up steam in the aftermath of the financial collapse of the subprime mortgage market and the subsequent burst of the housing bubble. Using the faulty “too big to fail” theory–which eventually led to the unconstitutional disaster known as the Dodd-Frank Act–Bush signed the $700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act into law, giving the government unlimited power to bail out Wall Street. In addition, Bush performed and end run around Congress by diverting a portion of these funds to unilaterally loan General Motors and Chrysler over $17 billion; serving as the beginning of the auto bailout completed by Obama.
When challenged in a CNN interview about these extreme decisions, Bush defended his action by declaring that he had “abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.”
https://youtu.be/Tmi8cJG0BJo
Enter the Carrier intervention. In a New York Times report on the bailout, Trump stated that he didn’t want companies “…moving out of the country without consequences” even if it angered free-market Republicans. In defense of Trump’s unclear and constitutionally questionable statement, Pence rolled out his Bush impersonation by adding, “the free market has been sorting it out and America’s been losing,” as Trump interjected, “Every time, every time.”
In other words, they abandoned the free market. Not to save the free market, but in order to save crony capitalism.
During the campaign season, Conservatives held Pence up as evidence that Trump could be held in check; that he would be the face of constitutional conservatism. I have never accepted this claim, particularly after his cave to the Gay Mafia last year when he compromised on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Indiana. And his willingness to abandon the Constitution, and throwing freedom under the bus, in order to protect his liberal-progressive self-interest using big government populism proves my point.
But you can’t say that he doesn’t do a convincing George W. Bush impersonation.
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative, your source for opinion that’s politically-incorrect and always “right.” His articles can also be found on RedState.com.
His daily radio commentary is nationally syndicated with Salem Radio Network and can be heard on stations across America.
