'Republicans oppose this, remember?': Sarah Palin slams Trump for 'crony capitalism' Carrier deal
In an op-ed for the Young Conservatives website, Palin wrote that Republicans oppose the kind of government deal making Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence made with the company to keep approximately 1,100 jobs at an Indianapolis plant from migrating to Mexico, joining in with a chorus of conservatives who have said it violates free market principles.
"Foundational to our exceptional nation's sacred private property rights, a business must have freedom to locate where it wishes," wrote Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee. "In a free market, if a business makes a mistake (including a marketing mistake that perhaps Carrier executives made), threatening to move elsewhere claiming efficiency's sake, then the market's invisible hand punishes."
"Thankfully, that same hand rewards, based on good business decisions," she continued. "But this time-tested truth assumes we're operating on a level playing field. When government steps in arbitrarily with individual subsidies, favoring one business over others, it sets inconsistent, unfair, illogical precedent."
The deal included the state of Indiana offering Carrier $7 million in tax subsidies over 10 years to keep some of the jobs that were planned to be exported in the state.
Palin wrote that the "illogical precedent" leads to special interests manipulating markets.
"Republicans oppose this, remember?" she wrote. "Instead, we support competition on a level playing field, remember? Because we know special interest crony capitalism is one big fail."
She continued, adding that the "picking and choosing" which companies receive "corporate welfare" is roiled by fiscal conservatives and is a "hallmark of corruption" and "socialism."
"A $20 trillion debt-ridden country can't afford this sinfully stupid practice, so vigilantly guard against its continuance, or we're doomed," she said, adding, "However well meaning, burdensome federal government imposition is never the solution. Never. Not in our homes, not in our schools, not in churches, not in businesses."
Noting that she said you "gotta' have faith the Trump team knows all this," she said she'd be "the first" to say that the concerns are "unfounded" once the terms of the deal are made public, if those terms disprove her allegation of "crony capitalism." Earlier in the op-ed, she also said she was "ecstatic" for Carrier employees.
"But know that fundamentally, political intrusion using a stick or carrot to bribe or force one individual business to do what politicians insist, versus establishing policy incentivizing our ENTIRE ethical economic engine to roar back to life, isn't the answer," she wrote, adding, "The lines strangle competition and really, really, dispiritingly screw with workers' lives."
Palin announced her support for Trump in a lengthy speech earlier this year, and is currently under consideration by Trump for a cabinet position.