Sarah Palin Calls Out Trump's Carrier Deal, Warns Against 'Crony Capitalism'

Sarah Palin Calls Out Trump's Carrier Deal, Warns Against 'Crony Capitalism'

by Phil McCausland
Dec 2 2016, 10:28 pm ET

An unexpected dissenting voice came out Friday against a Trump administration brokered deal to keep a Carrier plant in Indiana and save around 1,000 jobs.

Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in an op-ed for the Young Conservatives website called the deal, which was reportedly negotiated by Vice President-elect Mike Pence, an example of government intervention that could lead to "crony capitalism."

Palin said in the op-ed "I am ecstatic for Carrier employees!" But she wrote that while she didn't yet know the full terms of the deal, the negotiation could signal an abandonment of fiscal conservatism and stimulus packages that, if pursued, would mean the country is "doomed."

Carrier Corp. had planned to move a factory in Indianapolis to Mexico, taking 1,400 jobs with it.

Under the proposed deal with Carrier's parent company United Technologies, the company would receive $7 million in financial incentives over 10 years in exchange for a guarantee that Carrier would retain at least 1,000 jobs and invest $16 million into its Indiana operation, a source familiar with the talks has said.

The deal was touted by Donald Trump, who has pledged to keep jobs in the United States.

Palin, the former governor of Alaska, said in the op-ed that the package could encourage other businesses to threaten to leave the country in order to receive similar breaks, effectively motivating industries to blackmail the government.

"Republicans oppose this, remember? Instead, we support competition on a level playing field, remember?" Palin wrote. "Because we know special interest crony capitalism is one big fail."

Palin wrote that she was hopeful the Trump administration is aware of the pitfalls of what she called "burdensome federal government imposition."

"Gotta' have faith the Trump team knows all this. And I'll be the first to acknowledge concerns over a deal cut by leveraging taxpayer interests to make a manufacturer stay put are unfounded — once terms are made public," Palin wrote in the op-ed.

A request for comment from Trump's transition team was not immediately returned.

Palin has supported Trump and endorsed him in January during the primary campaign. Palin has been in touch with Trump transition officials about a possible role in the new administration, sources close to Palin have told NBC News.

Others have worried that the incentives given to Carrier could encourage other companies to threaten to leave the U.S. in the hopes of getting a deal from the government.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the former Democratic presidential candidate, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that "United Technologies took Trump hostage and won."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...gainst-n691426

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Palin, the former governor of Alaska, said in the op-ed that the package could encourage other businesses to threaten to leave the country in order to receive similar breaks, effectively motivating industries to blackmail the government.

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She makes a good point here. Trump should stick with his original plan of taxing each company that outsources jobs 35% for each product shipped back here. A 35% tax on each and every heating/AC unit Carrier makes in Mexico and ships back here should be enough to give them immediate pause. What that tax also means is every heating/AC unit builder in the United States can immediately undercut each Carrier unit. Yes, such a move would be devastating to their profit margin. Of course to do this the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has to be repealed or renegotiated. Cheap labor in Mexico won't be so cheap anymore with the add tax per product figured into the equation.

Trump needs to be encouraged to make the repeal of NAFTA an immediate concern in his new administration!

Sarah, the Carrier deal is not "crony capitalism." It's good business for the state of Indiana and the United States. Good business for states and our country results in good jobs for our citizens. The $7 million are tax incentives from the state of Indiana, not the US government, the same tax incentives that are available to any company locating in Indiana or retaining jobs in Indiana. These incentives are available for both new industry and the retention of industry.

Was it "crony capitalism" when as Mayor of Wasilla you arranged property tax abatement to bring companies to your town?

Every Governor in the country offers what Mike Pence offered to Carrier, and most leave anyway. In fact, Pence said he offered them this a year ago, and they were leaving anyway. The difference here was Donald Trump, because he's bringing the hammer down on this. He's telling them straight up, you leave this country, there will be consequences when you try to back-haul those products into the United States, you stay and there will be new benefits to producing in America, a 15% corporate tax rate down from 35%, less regulations and the goodwill of producing in the country that is buying the majority of the products you make.

The term "crony capitalism" originated with socialists and communists, not capitalists, so I would advise people who think they're some type of capitalist to stop using it.

I read somewhere on the web that it was the original deal the State had offered carrier. Carrier was paying back the incentive the State gave them. The amount paid back by carrier to the State was something like 700,000 because they were leaving the State and broke aggrement. What the article said was that the State was giving them back the 700,000 carrier paid back in agreement to stay. The rest of the incentives that was originally negotiated would be reactivated. So according to the article it was the original deal that was on table and wouldn't cost tax payers anymore that already arranged through the state.

Trump's heart is in the right place, but picking individual winners is too interventionist in the economy. Once he assumes power, it needs to be done so things are offered to all companies. When the government starts picking which individual companies will get economic benefits, it interferes with the free market's function and causes unintended unwanted consequences (something the government is famous for).

Economic central planning doesn't work. We really don't need any more examples than we've already seen in history for intelligent people to see this. I encourage everyone reading this to read "The Road to Serfdom" by F.A. Hayek.

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Originally Posted by posylady

I read somewhere on the web that it was the original deal the State had offered carrier. Carrier was paying back the incentive the State gave them. The amount paid back by carrier to the State was something like 700,000 because they were leaving the State and broke aggrement. What the article said was that the State was giving them back the 700,000 carrier paid back in agreement to stay. The rest of the incentives that was originally negotiated would be reactivated. So according to the article it was the original deal that was on table and wouldn't cost tax payers anymore that already arranged through the state.

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I hear what you're saying. However, logic tell me a additional sweetener of some sort must have been added to the pot. It either had to be that or a threat that convinced them to change their mind. Perhaps it was a threat that worked ....... I don't know.

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Originally Posted by posylady

I read somewhere on the web that it was the original deal the State had offered carrier. Carrier was paying back the incentive the State gave them. The amount paid back by carrier to the State was something like 700,000 because they were leaving the State and broke aggrement. What the article said was that the State was giving them back the 700,000 carrier paid back in agreement to stay. The rest of the incentives that was originally negotiated would be reactivated. So according to the article it was the original deal that was on table and wouldn't cost tax payers anymore that already arranged through the state.

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Originally Posted by patbrunz

Trump's heart is in the right place, but picking individual winners is too interventionist in the economy. Once he assumes power, it needs to be done so things are offered to all companies. When the government starts picking which individual companies will get economic benefits, it interferes with the free market's function and causes unintended unwanted consequences (something the government is famous for).

Economic central planning doesn't work. We really don't need any more examples than we've already seen in history for intelligent people to see this. I encourage everyone reading this to read "The Road to Serfdom" by F.A. Hayek.

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Carrier is not the winner. Americans are the winners. It's costing Carrier a lot more to stay in Indianapolis than to move to Mexico. That is not winning, that is losing. Every company still operating in the US today is losing compared to what they would be winning in Mexico or China or Vietnam or by outsourcing.

Free Traders, the ones whose screwed up ideas about business they don't understand and economics they know nothing about, have for all practical purposes destroyed the US economy. It has to be rebuilt and protected with protected trade policies. The US was formed based on protected trade policies.

So all the Constitutionalists and "Fiscal Conservatives" and Originalists and Libertarians and Tea Parties and Freedom Caucusers or whatever else they want to call themselves are going to have be better educated than they are now, so they can their minds right on what has to be done to fix this disaster.

And Sarah Palin has just demonstrated that she's not risen to the level of knowledge or enlightenment to be a part of that recovery. The "picking of winners and losers", the "crony capitalism", and "state interventionsim" are all terms used in their opposite sense. We are in our Period of Ironies and Opposites when everything is upside down and inside out.

Keeping Carrier in Indianapolis is not picking winners and losers, it's not crony capitalism or state interventionsim. It's protected trade, America First, Jobs for Americans, Good Business for Suppliers and Vendors and the Community and Government, the very concept upon which our nation was founded and one to which we must return as quickly as possible to Make America Great Again.

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Originally Posted by MW

I hear what you're saying. However, logic tell me a additional sweetener of some sort must have been added to the pot. It either had to be that or a threat that convinced them to change their mind. Perhaps it was a threat that worked ....... I don't know.

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Trump said what it was if you took the time to watch his address to the Carrier workers on the subject. He told Carrier he was going to reduce corporate taxes to 15% and reduce regulations. He was also going to push consequences against anyone who leaves, a 35% tariff on all goods being back-hauled into the United States. Very simple. When you have a lower corporate tax rate and reduced regulations, their bottom-lines will improve. If you leave and have to pay a 35% tariff on goods coming back in the US, well, that eats up most of what you thought you were saving by moving to a hell-hole of peasants who don't even speak your language, plus American consumers might decide they don't want your peasant-built crap from a hell-hole with a sticker on it that says "Made in Mexico".

He just told them the truth. They're probably Democrats and didn't bother to read his plans or listen to his rally speeches and didn't know what was coming down the pike for them if Trump won. They announced this way back when most of these CEO's didn't think Trump had a chance to win the primary let alone the General Election.

Now they're informed, they know where they stand, and so they're going to stay and see what happens. They aren't keeping everything in Indianapolis. About 600 jobs are still going to Mexico, but Trump saved 1,100 of them with his phone calls. He didn't give them any money, there isn't any federal program available to give them any money except when they leave. Oh yes, when a company leaves the US and heads down to Mexico, they get a big chunk of change to pay their laid off workers extended unemployment benefits and send them to community college to "re-train" so they can learn to be an LPN for $8 an hour working for a 501 C 3.

So Trump actually saved the federal government millions and millions of dollars in Trade Adjustment Assistance Funds attached to NAFTA by keeping the 1,100 workers earning $25 an hour plus great benefits in the United States.