Oh, those shrill haters of millionaires&billionaires

Matt Continetti at the Weekly Standard wrote an article regarding the history of the Koch brothers that didn't frame them as evil capitalist monsters bent on controlling the universe -- Glenn Greenwald became shrill.

One problem Greenwald has is that, when interviewed by Continetti, Charles Koch said Obama is an egalitarian and has been influenced by Marxist ideas. Greenwald chooses to refute this by showing how much money rich bastards have made since Obama has come into office.

Since Obama was inaugurated, the Dow Jones has increased more than 50% -- from 8,000 to more than 12,000; the wealthiest recieved a massive tax cut; the top marginal tax rate was three times less than during the Eisenhower years and substantially lower than during the Reagan years; income and wealth inequality are so vast and rising that it is easily at Third World levels; meanwhile, "the share of U.S. taxes paid by corporations has fallen from 30 percent of federal revenue in the 1950s to 6.6 percent in 2009."  During this same time period, the unemployment rate has increased from 7.7% to 8.9%; millions of Americans have had their homes foreclosed; and the number of Americans living below the poverty line increased by many millions, the largest number since the statistic has been recorded.  Can you smell Obama's radical egalitarianism and Marxist anti-business hatred yet?

Then there are those whom Obama has empowered.  His first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is a business-revering corporatist who made close to $20 million in 3 short years as an investment banker, while his second, Bill Daley, served for years as JP Morgan's Midwest Chairman.  His Treasury Secretary is undoubtedly the most loyal and dedicated servant Wall Street has ever had in that position, while Goldman Sachs officials occupy so many key positions in his administration that a former IMF and Salomon Brothers executive condemned what he called "Goldman Sachs's seeming lock on high-level U.S. Treasury jobs."  Obama's former OMB Director recently left to take a multi-million-dollar position with Citigroup.  From the start, Obama's economic policies were shaped by the Wall Street-revering neo-liberal Rubinites who did so much to serve corporate America during the Clinton years.  Meanwhile, the President's choice to head his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness -- General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt -- heads a corporation that "despite $14.2 billion in worldwide profits - including more than $5 billion from U.S. operations - [] did not owe taxes in 2010":  an appointment the White House still defends.

To Greenwald's credit, he does try to get it right:

Some of these trends pre-date Obama, but few have been retarded during his presidency, while many have accelerated.   Whether one finds this state of affairs desirable or not, no rational person can describe them as the by-product of a Marxist, business-hating egalitarian.  Quite the opposite.  The political power of America's richest has never been greater, and the level of their responsibility and collective burden has never been less.  Meanwhile, for ordinary Americans, the remaining remnants of their financial security and middle class comforts rapidly erodes.  It's true that the U.S. Government has little regard for the free market:  they intervene constantly in the free market on behalf of the nation's wealthiest and most powerful business interests; it's crony capitalism, corporatism:  government run by corporations (or, as Dick Durbin said of the Congress in which he serves:  "the banks own the place").

But, then Greenwald goes on to claim that somehow the supposedly pro-business actions of Obama have helped create wealth accumulation, while ignoring the healthcare and energy bills which have not been fully implemented. Anyone who has paid attention to Obama's words and takes his actions regarding policy into account, what he has passed and what he would have passed if he could have (cap and trade), will never mistake him for a gung-ho capitalist and will more likely agree that Marx influenced Obama moreso than Hayek. Greenwald's "evidence" is what's detached from reality, not the normal reaction from the Koch brothers regarding the endless assaults against their character. Greenwald expects the Koch brothers to be superhuman tough-skins, but all they said in the interview, really, is that Obama is definitely not a libertarian, and that the Left is coming unhinged -- not really controversial.

You would think that Greenwald should understand the difference between someone like Obama protecting and helping selected large corporations in order to advance a progressive agenda and the libertarian, limited government approach supported by the Koch brothers. Just because Obama is using a few corporations to support his progressive plans doesn't mean Obama is business-friendly or has any affinity to free market principles, especially as business relates to fair competition in which small and medium size companies are not stepped on by the protected large corporations. Obama ultimately wants to use the State to implement his full agenda, but he realizes he has to go through corporations to get it done. Surely Greenwald sees this, and would see it if not blinded by his curious disdain for honest men who've made an honest fortune, and share that fortune with many in need.

Despite all Greenwald's added hyperbole to make the Koch brothers look like whiny, white rich guys complaining the mean Left called them names, then wiping their tears with hundred dollar bills, this cartoon version of the Koch brothers and what they said in the interview reflects more on Greenwald's psychological problem with successful business people than it does with the Koch brothers.