Dems, Not GOP, Are Party of Big Business

The idea that the GOP is the “party of big business” is a convenient fabrication, Jonah Goldberg writes, that handily deflects blame from the progressives who have historically been in bed with the fat cats—particularly the health care industry. Just look at GE during the Great Depression, when it was allowed to craft New Deal policy on “the grounds that it’s easier to steer a few giant oxen than a thousand carts.” Or GE today, which has “investments in technologies that cannot survive in a free market.”

The point, Goldberg writes in the Los Angeles Times, is that “too many Republicans think being pro-business is the same as being pro-market,” when in fact many large corporations need a distorted marketplace to survive. “Health care is the most troubling example of the trend,” Goldberg continues. Not only did Obama rake it in from industry donors during the election—now, while everyone debates “the government takeover of health care, what's really transpired is health care's takeover of government” coffers. If Republicans wake up to this, “they’ll deserve to win again.” (More Jonah Goldberg stories.)