President Elect Donald Trump, who knows Linda McMahon more
intimately than U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal, has appointed the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to head the Small Business Association (SBA).
Mrs. McMahon twice ran for high political office in
Connecticut, losing to then Attorney General Dick Blumenthal in 2010 and to
Chris Murphy in 2012, but not before she slathered the political landscape with
nearly $100 million. It was noted at the time that wrestlers sustain injuries
and Mrs. McMahon had a yacht.
If Mr. Blumenthal, slightly edging out Nancy Pelosi as the eleventh richest U.S. Congressman in a body swelling with 268 millionaires, showed any anxiety that his election
would turn on Mrs. McMahon’s millions, no worry wrinkles appeared on his placid
brow during the campaign.
Mr. Trump’s successful presidential campaign has torn asunder the best laid schemes of progressive Democrats. In the post-election period, Democrats
find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place. Nearly every Democratic
politician in Connecticut expected Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to mop the
floor with Mr. Trump, thus ushering in a new progressive era of sweetness and
light. Lame duck President Barack Obama’s domestic and foreign policies would
be vindicated; the progressive cream in the Democratic Party – socialist Vermont
Senator Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts firebrand Elizabeth Warren, the
scourge of Wall Street – would rise to the top; the last several decades of
moderate Democratic politicking would be mercifully assigned to the ashcan of
history; and a new progressive utopia, lasting for half a decade or more, would
shape the future.
Then along came Donald Trump, who tore asunder the
gossamer dreams of the progressives. Connecticut Governor Dannel
Malloy, approval rating 24 percent, will not be accepting a position in the
Clinton administration and handing the gubernatorial baton to Lieutenant
Governor Nancy Wyman; the seven Democratic members of the state’s all
Democratic U.S. Congressional Delegation will not be moving into chairmanship
positions in a Congress dominated by Democrats; in fact, after Republicans won
the White House and retained control of both houses of Congress, Mr. Blumenthal
was forced to surrender his position as the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee to fellow Democrat Senator Jon Tester of Montana.
And now, rubbing salt in an open wound, Mrs. McMahon is to
be put in charge of the SBA.
Following her appointment as SBA chief, Mr. Murphy threw a bouquet
in her direction. Mrs. McMahon, said the progressive Congressman, is “a talented
and experienced businessperson” and a “fierce fighter.” Mr. Blumenthal was also
complimentary, calling Mrs. McMahon "a person of serious accomplishment
and ability."
And then he wandered into an old smoldering fire pit. Mrs.
McMahon, said Mr. Blumenthal, “can help create jobs by helping small
businesses, as long as she is not hamstrung by the dangerous economic policies
espoused by other Trump-nominated cabinet officials. The Trump administration
needs a sane and stable source of economic leadership. Small businesses are among
our most important job creators, and they need support.”
Small businesses in his own state, caught in the toils of both
state and federal regulations and burdensome taxes, recoiled with horror during
a 2010 Blumenthal-McMahon Senate race when Mrs. McMahon, a talented and experiences
business woman, politely turned to Mr. Blumenthal and asked him how jobs are
created.
Mr. Blumenthal proceeded to rattle off at great length his crony
capitalist talking points, prominent among them that governmental intervention –
i.e. the picking and choosing of winners and losers in what remains of the U.S.
free market system -- is indispensable in the creation of jobs: “…we can and
should create more of them [jobs] by creative policy, and that’s the kind of
approach I want to bring to Washington.” Never fearful of patting himself on
the back, Mr. Blumenthal explained that as Attorney General he had “stood up
for jobs when that company [Pratt&Whitney} wanted to ship them out of state
and overseas… I want programs that provide more capital for small businesses, tax
policies that promote creating jobs, stronger intervention by government to
make sure that we use the ‘made in America’ policy and ‘but America’ policy to
take jobs here, rather than buying products that are manufactured overseas…”
Mrs. McMahon patiently explained how a job is created: “Government,
government, government – government does not create jobs. It’s very simple how
you create jobs. An entrepreneur takes a risk; he or she believes that he
creates a good or service that is sold for more than it costs to make it. If an
entrepreneur thinks he can do that, he creates a job.”
Mr. Blumenthal is in the habit of escaping such campaign
potholes by dodging debates. In his debate with Mrs. McMahon, he wrecked his
axel, not that anyone noticed. High taxes that crush the entrepreneurial spirit,
and burdensome regulations that increase the costs of goods and services, may
be good for political demagogues, but they are bad for job seekers, especially in
urban areas blighted by social decomposition and soothing progressive demagoguery.
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