Investor's: "Of Hugo And Hillary"

Of Hugo And Hillary
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 2/5/2007

Election 2008: Sen. Hillary Clinton publicly threatens to seize oil company profits and use them as she sees fit. Sounds like she's treating the world's greatest nation as her own little banana republic.

Exxon Mobil last week announced that it earned $39.5 billion in 2006, making it the most profitable year any company has ever had. It didn't take long for the socialist impulses on the left to kick in.

Speaking Friday at the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting in Washington, Clinton said that if she were elected president, she would confiscate that profit and use it to further her political agenda.

OK, those weren't her exact words. But judge for yourself what she has in mind: "I want to take those profits and put them into an alternative energy fund that will begin to fund alternative smart energy, alternatives that will actually begin to move us toward the direction of independence," she said with wide, glowing eyes that suggested the mere thought of taking money that didn't belong to her gave her a thrill.

Threatening to hijack private property in the energy industry is a serious matter.

If Clinton were able to seize profits, shareholders would suffer harm and Americans who use energy — that's all of us, except maybe Ted Kaczynski in his Unabomber days — would be saddled with higher prices and lower supplies.

The painful effects would be felt across the economy through lost opportunities and inefficiencies.

Yet the media largely yawned at the senator's plan to suspend property rights protection. Call it the Hugo Chavez Treatment.

In his power play, Venezuela's strongman has set out to nationalize the oil, telecommunications and electric power industries. Yet few in the U.S. media are able to work up much criticism of his actions, even as the nationalization process begins.

Rather, the legacy media — and the person they want back in the White House — save their venom for the companies that make the profits, create the wealth and provide the fuel for expanding economies and better standards of living.

Neither Clinton nor Chavez has much respect for property rights when those rights tread on their political ambitions. To them, freedom is just another word for when others have nothing left to lose.

This, of course, is not Clinton's first attempt to nationalize a key U.S. industry. As co-president with husband Bill, she was behind a plan that would have seized about 15% of the economy. It would also have taken medical care decisions out of the hands of patients and doctors and put them in the hands of government bureaucrats.

For Americans who value freedom, both personal and economic, Sen. Clinton's socialist ambitions and lust for power are troubling, to say the least.