A caustic, but realistic, look at regulated companies and the politicians they have to pay for protection from government

Does anyone find it curious that the areas of business we have the most problems with are the ones most “regulated”? The financial sector, banks, health care, automobile manufacturing—and now energy—fall into this category. “Regulated” in America just means you have to hire more lobbyists and pay more politicians to protect you—from the government.

It seems we never have any issues with the truly free enterprise sectors of our economy, represented by Wal-Mart, Coca Cola, Caterpillar, FedEx, Google, Intel, Starbucks, Proctor & Gamble, Taco Bell and Apple. Hmmm—I wonder if there is a reason for that?

When an industry is forced into bed with the government over regulation they come out as slimy as those birds in the Gulf now. The result is that the customer and society are forgotten in favor of “pay to play” politics and the buying of political cover for anything that might go wrong.

BP gave the most money to Obama. Ditto for Goldman Sachs. And, in fairness to Obama, if the Republicans had not lost power for becoming Democrats, BP and Goldman Sachs would be their largest contributors. These folks have no political ideology. They are just buying indulgent politicians, which is their best use of capital expenditure dollars when they are that heavily regulated.

BP had 97 percent of all flagrant violations found in the oil business by government safety inspectors, including 759 citations for “egregious, willful” violations, compared to only eight for the two companies tied for second. So BP was clearly spending their money on politicians, not safety.

If you buy Obama’s stern speeches threatening the very businesses that donate heavily to him, then you believe that WWF wrestler who makes bravado based predictions about the demise of his opponent before their “wrestling” match. In reality, they go out for drinks afterwards and laugh at us for believing them.

BP has and will pay for this. And they should. At least when a business pays for its mistakes it does it with earnings, not like the federal government that does it by borrowing money that future generations will have to pay back. I am sure Obama will make BP pay money on this, probably to the thug SEIU or unions in Detroit so hurt by Gulf of Mexico spill.