Crony Capitalism

From the Free Beacon:

The Obama machine functions in the following manner. Corporations seeking to curry favor with the administration can donate generously and secretly to Organizing for America. They also can join Business Forward. The reward is access, as well as the prospect that impending regulations and administrative protocols will be shaped to the corporation’s liking. Failure to donate, however, may put your corporation in the crosshairs of the members of the Democracy Initiative and Common Purpose Project. Suddenly you will see your business the target of “grassroots outrage” and intense and adversarial journalism. The attention will be unfriendly and annoying. But there will be a pretty obvious, if expensive, way of making it stop: Donate to Obama’s 501(c)(4).

Consider the experience of Walmart, long a villain of the left and the object of Obama’s derision in 2008. In 2009, however, when Walmart became a founding member of Business Forward, someone in the West Wing hit the criticism mute button. Before long, Walmart was working with the First Lady on the “Let’s Move!” exercise. All was well.

Or consider Organizing for Action’s recent alliance with Enroll America, a health insurance group whose leadership has ties to the White House. The two organizations, Politico reports, plan an intense effort to encourage Americans to purchase insurance plans mandated under the Affordable Care Act. The more people who sign up, the more customers for the industry represented by Enroll America, the more Obamacare looks like a success, and thus more pressure on insurance companies to give to Democrats writing health insurance regulations. As scams go, this one can’t be beat.