Ironic how the small taxes/small government crew are the first ones to feed at the government trough: When I saw the title I thought you were talking about the Bush's. Virtually every buck Dubya has made in his life has been due to using government connections to extract taxpayers dollars and have them paid to his various adventures as a "rugged free market" risk taking businessman. We see this pattern continuing through the current empahasis of the Carlyle Group whichlargely makes money off of government contracts. Of course we have the pofit taking of Cheney's pals as Haliburton.
It's actually even worse than that. Bush and all his cronies mostly come from regulated industries (like the Energy business), where profits aren't determined by innovation like, say Microsoft, or anything like that, but are instead a function of the relationship between those industries and the regulating bodies -- essentially, how much of the monopolistic profit that the bodies are prepared to let them carry off.
Good lord, you are speaking out of school again. Please SamFisher, enlighten us all on how government *regulation* directly impacts oilfield services firms (Cheney) and oil and gas exploration firms (Bush). I'd love to hear it.
This is a soft ball. I can tell you how lack of govt. regulation has allowed firms such as this to bilk the govt. of money. In Haliburton has had to pay fines for over billing. That was during Cheney's term as head of the corporation as well.
LOL, you couldn't be so stupid as to not know what I was referring to, but anyway, I'll break it down for you again 1. the energy business as a whole on the consumer level is, uh, heavily regulated, to put it mildly. For you not to be able to recognize this is a sign of some form of mental incapacity which cause me some vague form of concern, and leads me to believe you've been drinking and swallowing pepperoni again. 2. in the direct context of their particular fields, feeding at the government trough (halliburton) and ,well Bush didn't exactly do anything except be a failed businessman for a few years who made a little bit of money of insider sales, so I don't know what to say about him. However, if you don't think that the business of oil exploration has anything to do with gladhandling (bribing) government officials, as most exploration is done in foreign territories, then you're mistaken..again. Don't make me put up Kenny Boy's letters to Bush tallking up Uzbekistan and its bloodthirsty tyrant of a leader who is as bad as Saddaam, but good enouogh for us apparently. Address the counterexample.
