First, Carrier. Next: Single Payer Health Care??
“A little muscle judiciously applied can be a unifying thing.”
–Peggy Noonan, “Trump’s Carrier Coup and a Lesson From JFK”; The Wall Street Journal (12/2/16).
[Editor’s Note: The views expressed here are solely those of Ross Kaplan, and do not represent Edina Realty, Berkshire Hathaway, or any other entity referenced.]
Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist famously announced, once upon a time, that his goal was to “shrink government down to the size it could fit in a bathtub . . . and then drown it.”
That hasn’t exactly happened.
On the contrary: the never-bigger federal government now spends over $4 trillion a year.
Ironically (if not awkwardly) for small government-types, all that spending translates into serious clout, at least in the short run, in the hands of an executive willing to wield it.
Apparently, Trump is.
Exhibit A: Carrier’s announcement that it’s keeping 1,000 manufacturing jobs in Indiana rather than moving them to Mexico in response to Trump’s intervention.
Carrot & Stick Approach
Besides offering Carrier a carrot — state tax incentives dangled by Vice President-elect (and current Indiana Governor) Mike Pence — the incoming Administration looks to have wielded a stick as well.
That would be the $5 billion in business that the Pentagon does annually with parent company United Technologies — business that presumably could be diverted elsewhere.
What will Trump do for an encore?
Using the same logic, he should love the idea of single payer health care, whereby the federal government — acting on behalf of taxpayers-cum-health care consumers — uses its spending leverage to extract price concessions from business.
Whaddya say, Donald??
Train your guns — and tweets — on Big Pharma and Health Insurance next . . .
