Tea Party Senator: Government Subsidies Are Communism (Unless They Make Me Rich)

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson — a Tea Party favorite who serves as a prominent surrogate for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign — raised eyebrows on Tuesday morning when he said on CNN’s “Starting Point” that investing in green energy makes America just like the Soviet Union.

“President Obama simply doesn’t understand that it’s the free enterprise systems, the private sector, the productive sector, not the government sector that creates long-term self-sustaining jobs,” Johnson told host Soledad O’Brien. “Take a look at the Soviet Union, Venezuela’s economic basket case, and is anybody moving to the island paradise of Cuba?”

“You’re surely not suggesting that the idea and the concept behind Solyndra and other green energies like Solyndra is comparable to the Soviet Union and Cuba, right?” O’Brien asked incredulously.

Johnson replied in the affirmative.

No, I am suggesting that, because when you take taxpayer money and you invest that into businesses, that’s the taxpayer money put at risk. And let’s face it, the lesson of the Soviet Union and other socialist nations is that governments are very poor allocators of capital. It’s an economic model that doesn’t work.

Aside from the obvious absurdity of claiming that investing in green energy will transform American into the country that brought us the Chernobyl disaster, Johnson ignores the fact that his candidate also invested state money in solar companies while he was governor of Massachusetts.

“Didn’t it work in Massachusetts?” O’Brien asked. “Isn’t that exactly what Governor Romney did in Massachusetts in green energy when he was the governor of Massachusetts?”

“Listen, the path we need to take this country on is with free enterprise system, the private sector that creates long term self-sustaining jobs and that’s exactly what Governor Romney would do as President Romney,” Johnson non-answered.

Video of the exchange is below, via Think Progress

Although Johnson claims that subsidizing green businesses is akin to communism, he had no problem voting to preserve multi-billion dollar tax subsidies for the oil industry. Of course, his support for Big Oil is hardly a surprise; Johnson owned up to $466,000 of stock in various oil companies when he ran for Senate, and donors from the oil industry have contributed $113,950 to him in the last six years.

Johnson also presumably wasn’t thinking of the Soviet Union when his own company, a plastics manufacturer called Pacur, received a $2.5 million loan from the city of Oshkosh — in the form of a government bond that charged below-market interest rates.

Apparently Johnson only thinks that government subsidies are communism if he’s not getting rich off of them.

Advertising

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

Trump Touts New Push To 'Repeal And Replace' Obamacare

The late Sen. John McCain gives thumbs down to Affordable Care Act repeal in July 2017

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

Donald Trump is once again living in the past, trying to resurrect a Republican political debacle that even the Freedom Caucus has abandoned: Obamacare repeal. “The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives," he spewed on Truth Social on Saturday.

Keep reading...Show less
George Santos
Rep. George Santos
George Santos

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Monday afternoon said he has spoken toRep. George Santos, suggesting the embattled and indicted New York Republican might resign rather than face an impending expulsion vote he’s likely to lose. But over the holiday weekend, Santos suggested he was not going to go without a fight, as he appeared to take a page out of another embattled Republican’s book: former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC).

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}