Peggy Noonan on Paul Ryan

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan does not merely contrast Paul Ryan and Barrack Obama, although she does that most excellently. Ryan is a thinker who is genuinely interested in solving this nation's problems and who is able to present his well-considered solutions in a coherent manner. Obama is a crass politician whose only concern is self-preservation and whose only interest in our economic woes are in how to turn them to his advantage.

We all knew that, but she demonstrates it so well.

The greatest value of this piece, however, is in the showcase of Ryan's position on crony capitalism and the conservative case for free markets. It shreds the Leftist meme that conservatives are defenders of big business and 'the rich.'

From the closing paragraphs of her piece:

"But Republicans, in their desire to defend free economic activity, shouldn't be snookered by unthinking fealty to big business. They should never defend—they should actively oppose—the kind of economic activity that has contributed so heavily to the crisis. Here Mr. Ryan slammed "corporate welfare and crony capitalism."

"Why have we extended an endless supply of taxpayer credit to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, instead of demanding that their government guarantee be wound down and their taxpayer subsidies ended?" Why are tax dollars being wasted on bankrupt, politically connected solar energy firms like Solyndra? "Why is Washington wasting your money on entrenched agribusiness?"

Rather than raise taxes on individuals, we should "lower the amount of government spending the wealthy now receive." The "true sources of inequity in this country," he continued, are "corporate welfare that enriches the powerful, and empty promises that betray the powerless." The real class warfare that threatens us is "a class of bureaucrats and connected crony capitalists trying to rise above the rest of us, call the shots, rig the rules, and preserve their place atop society."

That is exactly right. Regulation does necessarily favors Jones over Smith. Particularly if Jones helps to write the regulation. The free market favors whichever provides the best value to consumers. The Left portrays the marketplace as a jungle in which businesses are predators on consumers. But in fact, in a free market, the businesses are the game. The slowest or the weakest die. In our current over-regulated crony-capitalist market, BA survives and Goldman Sachs becomes 'too big to fail' through connections with the zoo keeper rather than through competition. In this case, the consumer really is fed to the second hand lions.
I don't always agree with Peggy Noonan's opinion. But there are few better essayists than she.