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| Trump got into the Oval Office in part because people wanted to have the government run like a business. Trump, and many of the people who voted for him, are discovering why this method isn't such a good idea. |
Why can't the government be run more like a business?
That's why a lot of people voted for Donald Trump and the Republicans.
Well, I'm
I hope you're happy
Traditionally, western democracies are run in such a way that everyone is in this together. You have rights - voting, free speech, government services, etc - and you have responsibilities. You vote, pay your taxes, don't violate the laws and you contribute to society.
A business is different. If you're running a business, you try to maximize profits. And you shed the parts of your business that are not making money. Everything is dispensible. Including people. It's cold, dispassionate decision making.
So let's look at how things are going in our government, which really does seem to be running like a business now that Trump, Mr. "Art of the Deal" is running the show.
The process has been a mess, with deals and counterdeals and doubts and recriminations. This Washington DC "corporate board room" is admittably pretty dysfunctional.
The bottom line is they were looking at repealing Obamacare and replacing it with....something else.
This something else would mean that people who are poor, elderly, sick, don't work are denied health coverage.
Oh, I know the GOP will tell you that the free market will take care of these people, that they'll get insurance one way or another.
That's just PR - another important part of running a business.
But we have to deal with reality. Let's face it: The poor, elderly, sick, disabled, etc. are not profitable.
They don't really have much in the way of incomes. Which means there's no money they can be cheated out of . They're expensive, what with all those health issues. Why put up with such a losing part of the corporaton?
So cut them off. Without health insurance and any other social net kind of protection, they'll die off earlier. They'll go away. They won't be a burden on the bottom line. Write 'em off!
Of course you'll never hear the likes of Paul Ryan put things in those terms. Bad PR. (See above) Most people don't have this cold, calculating attitude. But some of the most successful corporate people do, and if some people die in the process that's just business. Gotta make a profit!
When you're running a business you've got to protect yourself from competition. You don't want some frisky upstart to screw up your business model.
That's probably a good share of why the EPA is so anti-environmental, why the EPA chief denies climate change, and the Secretary of State is an oil executive.
There's all those entrenched oil companies making oodles of money, and that could be threatened by those damn climate change activists and alternative energy upstart companies.
What if somehow, the products made by the clean energy companies become wildly popular, inexpensive and easy to use?
Those oil companies would be stuck with little income and tons of oil sitting "uselessly" in the ground.
With Trump being friendly and cooperative, and probably an investor in oil, why not use the White House as a business model to make sure those upstart competitors don't siphon profits away?
Secretiveness is a hallmark of running a business. You don't want competitors or regulators finding out what you're doing. If they do, they'll take advantage.ll
Speaking of regulations, rulemaking is why government shouldn't be run like a business.
Most of the time, businesses are regulated by laws and regulation that prevent, say, cheating customers, polluting the atmosphere, swindling stockholders, that kind of thing.
Regulations cost money. That's why the Republicans are (seriously!) talking about getting rid of things like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education.
Sure, that's politicians giving a hand to their business constitutents, but it benefits them, too. (See: campaign contributions.)
Plus, the Trump administration is full of people from industries and business, including Trump himself, who will personally financially benefit from fewer regulations.
Abolishing the Education Department would really be a win for the Corporate White House. Uneducated people, which is what they want, tend not to ask critical questions, or even know which questions to ask.
Again, if some of the rest of us suffer because of pollution problems, lack of education or some other anti-regulation effect, too bad. We should just shut up and allow these corporate titans to make their billions.
Us 99 percenters are dispensable, apparently.
It's turning out to be hard, though to run the United States government like a business. We saw that with the imploded attempt to get rid of Obamacare, which, as noted above, would have made it impossible for millions of us to get health insurance.
Activist stockholders can be annoying to the Corporate Titans, but voters in a democracy are even "worse."
As Congressional Republicans worked to abolish Obamacare, voters screamed and hollored and lobbied and harassed the politicans who would do them harm in the name of personal profits.
Betray voters like this and a politician might find himself or herself eventually out of a job. Plus that pesky judicial system occasionally stymies the corporate profit making machine in government by pointing out that some of what they're doing is unconstitutional.
I guess the Constitution is a hinderance to unbridled profit taking in government.
Oh well.
The health care "overhaul" turned into an embarrasing disaster for the "businesslike" GOP that should have known better.
Corporate chiefs like Trump and his minions are used to barking orders and getting what they want.
Trump isn't as powerful as he thinks he is. We all know his thin skin and snowflake like insecurity makes him weak.
And, we hope, he's beginning to prove he's no match for a constitutional Republic.
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