Here’s an interesting tidbit. Well, it’s not really a tidbit but rather a very disturbing announcement from our own Chamber of Commerce–the boys and girls there apparently want to spend hundreds of millions to wage war against Obama’s recovery program. They seem to be orbiting another galaxy and oblivious to all that has occurred because their position is to defend the free market system at all cost.  Government regulation and assistance is for sissies.  Or worse yet, commies.

From Politico:

As the Obama administration encroaches deeper into the private sector and Congress contemplates more regulations, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is launching a multimillion-dollar campaign to defend the free market system.

Donahue is Chamber President Tom Donohue, and while this particular article doesn’t address it, I’m sure that they will be battling against any form of healthcare reform.  What Mr. Donahue has failed to mention, in his praise to the glory of the free market, is that un-regulated greed got us into our current mess in the first place (and the great Depression as well), and the only thing that will stand between America and another equally bad mess is strong government regulation. It is quite apparent that the free market system cannot be trusted to sselfregulate. As soon as regulations were weakened (remeber the S&L crisis in the 1980s?), as what happened with banking, it was a free for all.  Why does Donahue think that the free market system is suddenly going to magically regulate itself?

Most important, what solutions does he have? How does he propose getting this situation under control without government assistance? And what about healthcare? The free market has failed miserably in that sense.

Then again, people like Donahue and his friends in the Chamber aren’t really affected by all this. They haven’t lost thier jobs, their retirement accounts, their savings, their homes, or their health insurance.  Perhaps he and his pals should go out in the streets and talks to some of the millions who have had a less than enjoyable experience with an unregulated, free market system. Like the guy who can’t get health insurance because of a pre-existing condition, or Mrs. Smith who was set to retire this year but oops–pension and retirement account are gone with the wind.