Obama’s Big Promotion: Head of All Industry?

 

As Stoutcat wrote this morning, President Obama has effectively fired GM CEO Rick Wagoner.  

I wonder how many Americans have really given some thought to the precedent set by the President? Today it’s GM. Whom does Obama take over tomorrow? What if you worked for GM and came to work only to find the CEO had been fired… by the President of the United States? Can salary caps be far behind?

Obama has now established that if he decides that he knows how to run a company better than the CEO, he can simply demand the CEO’s resignation. The fact that GM is hoping for more federal funds to get it through its current problems is actually moot. With no promise of funding, Obama demanded (and got) the resignation of the CEO.  Another piece of American democracy falls by the wayside.  

Wake up, folks! It’s happening before our very eyes. Obama has taken another crap on our Constitution, our way of life, and our free enterprise system. As a quick refresher from Wikipedia: “Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are privately owned and controlled rather than commonly, publicly, or state-owned and controlled.”

Did Rick Wagoner deserve to be fired? Quite possibly, but that decision should have been made by GM’s Board of Directors, not by the President of the United States.

This is no laughing matter, folks. Nowhere in the Constitution does it mention that the President may fire people in private companies. If he wants to withhold government funds that would keep them afloat, fine. He should have done that. Instead he holds our tax dollars in the form of a potential bail-out for GM as if it were a hostage and Wagoner’s scalp was the ransom required.

Wagoner reported to GM’s Board of Directors and Stockholders. Obama has just proclaimed himself to be a part of the executive level structure — at the very top. Above the board of directors. Above the CEO. Above the stockholders. Why? Because he can, and because he knows we have a gutless, impotent Congress that will only praise his every move.  Oh, and also because, in his own mind, it makes him look Presidential. A real “take charge” kinda guy.

Well, allow me to point out that bank robbers are also “take charge” kinda guys. And perhaps they are more honest. You know what their agenda is when they walk through the door. And when they leave, you know who really took your money… and  you probably have a better idea what it’s going to be used for.

Gerry Ashley