Obama Citizenship

Bailout Update: Is Obama Set to Nationalize American Industries?

By Phil

Via theobamafile.com, the International Herald Tribune reports that Barack Obama is supporting using government (read: our) monies to prop up failing companies, but doesn’t want to call this “nationalism:”

When President-elect Barack Obama talked on Sunday about realigning the American automobile industry he was quick to offer a caution, lest he sound more like the incoming leader of France, or perhaps Japan.

“We don’t want government to run companies,” Obama told Tom Brokaw on “Meet the Press.” “Generally, government historically hasn’t done that very well.”

But what Obama went on to describe was a long-term government bailout that would be conditioned on government oversight. It could mean that the government would mandate, or at least heavily influence, what kind of cars companies make, what mileage and environmental standards they must meet and what large investments they are permitted to make ? to recreate an industry that Obama said “actually works, that actually functions.”

It all sounds perilously close to a word that no one in Obama’s camp wants to be caught uttering: nationalization.

Eventually, someone is going to have to bail out the federal government.

-Phil

Full post as published by The Right Side of Life on December 09, 2008 (boomark / email).