Roy Cordato warned us recently against referring to President Obama as ?anti-business.? Roy says it?s more accurate to label our president ?anti-free market, anti-personal liberty, and anti-entrepreneurship.?
Ramesh Ponnuru tackles a similar theme in the latest National Review, urging Republicans to support policies that emphasize market competition, rather than policies that promote particular existing businesses.
?The problem we have had as a party is we have often confused being pro-market with being pro-business,? says Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) When businesses ask for earmarks, too many of his colleagues think that saying yes is the right thing to do. Ryan believes that Republicans should run against ?crony capitalism,? in which government selects some firms for favors.
Ponnuru returns to the theme near the article:
A lot of Republicans are convinced that the free-enterprise system needs a more vigorous defense than it has needed in many years. Defending it requires first defining what it is ? and what it is not. A welfare system for business is not, and tends to discredit, free enterprise. Supporters of markets must be zealous not only in protecting business from government but in protecting citizens from their improper combination.
