COMMENTARY: Donald Trump gets rid of Obama era program designed to cripple legal businesses
I mentioned in a recent column that the news was filled with stories about the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, the Charlottesville protest and, let’s not forget, Confederate statues.
But these are all WMDs — Weapons of Mass Distraction. They don’t matter on a daily basis to 99.9 percent of us. What matters are high-quality jobs, the economy, the health of small business (which creates most private-sector jobs) and the survival of the middle class.
Like 63 million others, I voted for President Donald Trump to rescue the dying U.S. economy. To lower my taxes. To repeal the disaster known as Obamacare. To bolster small business. These are simple things. But the media ignore them. They want to distract you from what matters.
A great example is Operation Choke Point. I’ll bet good money that 99 percent of Review-Journal readers have never heard of it. You didn’t know President Barack Obama created it. And you didn’t know Trump killed it only days ago.
Why didn’t this story make headlines? Why isn’t Operation Choke Point more important than a disturbance in Charlottesville, or the KKK, or a handful of toothless, brainless, racist neo-Nazis?
Operation Choke Point was another socialist scheme cooked up by Comrade Obama to make it harder to do business in America. To damage capitalism. To “choke” the economy. To kill middle-class jobs. To put obstacles and challenges in front of business owners.
And here’s the hidden goal: to starve and “choke” the life out of conservative talk radio and conservative websites such Fox News, the Drudge Report and Breitbart.
Operation Choke Point was a U.S. Justice Department program dreamed up by Obama to cut off bank accounts, credit, loans and credit card merchant accounts to legal businesses. The stated purpose was to fight fraud and money laundering. In reality, the federal government tried to strangle and “choke” legal businesses that Obama deemed “undesirable.” Even liberal lawyers called it a terrible violation of the Constitution.
It must have been pure coincidence that the legal businesses Obama chose to “choke” were all advertisers on conservative talk radio and on popular conservative websites. The list includes gun dealers, firearm sales, ammunition sales, gold dealers, coin dealers, “get- rich products,” Pyramid-type sales, lottery sales, gambling businesses, mailing-list sales, credit repair services, credit card services, payday loans, debt consolidation, surveillance equipment and telemarketing (among others). Interesting list.
First, they are all 100 percent legal businesses. Whether you like them or not, the government has no right to try to bankrupt them or force them out of business.
Secondly, they all just happen to advertise on conservative talk radio.
Third, they all just happen to advertise on conservative websites.
Fourth, they just happen to all be advertisers on my specific conservative talk radio and TV shows.
Fifth, many of these are businesses I’ve either been in, or made money off of, my entire life. I’m the prototypical independent small businessman who wants no help from government. Obama’s goal was to make people such as me extinct.
Why? Because these are a foundation of small business and the private sector. These are businesses all run by mom-and-pop owners with one to 100 employees.
It just so happens, none of these are industries built around big business or billion-dollar multinationals (Obama’s biggest donors).
Typical Obama. Obama choked the economy … Typical Trump. Trump rides to the rescue … Typical media. They never mention any of it.
Contact Wayne Allyn Root at Wayne@ROOTforAmerica.com. Hear or watch the nationally syndicated “WAR Now: The Wayne Allyn Root Show” from 3 to 6 p.m. daily at 790 Talk Now and watch at 5 p.m. on Newsmax TV.
