Corporate Welfare and Progressives

"The government's been in bed with the entire telecommunications industry since the forties. They've infected everything. They get into your banks statements, computer files, email, listen to your phone calls. Every wire, every airwave. The more technology used, the easier it is for them to keep tabs on you. It's a brave new world out there. At least it better be."
--Brill (Enemy of the State)

As noted in this article, progressives often rail against corporate welfare but act in ways that support it. Democrats, for example, voted for the TARP bailouts at a far higher rate than did Republicans.

Obamacare, cap and trade, and regulation in general all serve to protect the franchises of incumbents at the expense of entrepreneurial innovation.

As the author observes near the end of his piece: "Big government is not a hedge against big corporations. Generally speaking, they work together against the consumer."

Indeed, big business is an attractive transmission mechanism for progressive policy.