The Republican catchphrase of the moment is "crony capitalism." This is odd, because Republicans don't usually like to disparage capitalism in any form. Nonetheless, House Speaker John Boehner, in his jobs speech today, complained that "entrepreneurs and job creators" have been "undercut by a government that favors crony capitalism."
Until today, "crony capitalism" was known mainly as the billy club that Republican presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann deployed to beat up front-runner Rick Perry for getting too cozy with Merck, which employed Perry's former chief of staff (and had given Perry $22,000 in campaign contributions--not the $5,000 Perry claimed) when Perry decided to require teenage girls in Texas to be vaccinated against HPV with Gardisil, a Merck drug. "Well, it's very clear that crony capitalism could likely have been the cause," Bachmann said Sept. 13 on NBC's "Today" show. Make-believe presidential candidate Sarah Palin backed Bachmann up that same day on Fox News: "Fighting the crony capitalism is a tough thing to do within in your own party." Actually Palin had already been beating Perry up with the same phrase. Palin, Sept. 3 Tea Party rally in Indianola, Iowa: "I want all of our GOP candidates to take the opportunity to kill corporate capitalism" (she meant "crony capitalism") "that is leading to this cronyism" (there's the save) "that is killing our economy."
Obviously "crony capitalism" tests well because Boehner and Palin are now using it to attack President Obama. General Electric, Palin complained today, "is now the poster child of corporate welfare and crony capitalism," ostensibly because it "pays virtually no corporate income taxes despite earning worldwide profits of $14.2 billion last year" (has she been lunching with Elizabeth Warren?) but in fact because GE's chairman, Jeffrey Immelt, chairs Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Palin said much the same about Solyndra, a renewable-energy company that the Obama administration is now very sorry that it touted.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/timothy-noah/95026/crony-capitalism-switches-parties
