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Anti-Biz Obama 'Loathes Profit Motive': Barnes

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 13, 2009 4:33 PM CDT

(Newser) – “Anti-business may be too crude a label” for President Obama, Fred Barnes writes in the Weekly Standard, but America's leader certainly "has a dark view of profits." Surveying Obama's appointments, policies, and remarks about business, Barnes concludes that "Obama loathes the profit motive or at least what he thinks it causes.” Yet Obama maintains that "he's a free-market guy who hates 'meddling in the private sector.'"

In fact, the president has done “quite a bit to restrain” job growth by regulating banks, spanking credit card companies, and limiting executive bonuses, says Barnes. Obama's bailouts of GM and Chrysler betray a government-controls-business attitude that dismisses free markets. And his public comments, which favor nonprofits over profit-making, seal the deal for Barnes: "Given the evidence, rendering a verdict on Obama and business is easy."

President Barack Obama.
President Barack Obama.   (AP Photo)
President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.   (AP Photo)
President Barack Obama meets with Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, not shown, Friday, June 12, 2009, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.
President Barack Obama meets with Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, not shown, Friday, June 12, 2009, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.   (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
President Barack Obama speaks at a town hall meeting on health care reform, Thursday, June 11, 2009, at Southwest High School in Green Bay, Wis.
President Barack Obama speaks at a town hall meeting on health care reform, Thursday, June 11, 2009, at Southwest High School in Green Bay, Wis.   (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
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Anti-business may be too crude a label. But this we can conclude: Obama doesn't trust free markets, he prefers government over business, he thinks Americans are too concerned about money, and he has a dark view of profits.
- Fred Barnes

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 10 comments
oldgoat
Jun 15, 2009 9:41 AM CDT
Let's see, the Weekly Standard. The standard bearer for the conservative movement. Yeah we're suppose to believe him. Maybe he ought to look at what the profit motive did to the economy. Look at Madoff, the banks, stock market, GM and Chrysler, for that matter the oil prices that let to $4.00 gas.
SBS
Jun 14, 2009 12:49 PM CDT
TC You have a good point. Greed is a prime motivator. This goes for many people. Those people who were in mutual funds getting fifteen per cent profit were not happy with seven percent. The market cannot sustain growth like that without imploding at some point. We are now paying the price for unregulated policies.
Newser001
Jun 14, 2009 12:07 PM CDT
After the spanking the banking and securities industries just gave the entire world (economies)... Barnes complains? Those that failed should have failed - What a whiny ass schmuck; status quo.

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