Left-wing Democrats are on a mission to expand government control over the economy. Instead of a vibrant free market buzzing with innovation and entrepreneurship, leftists want to put every company in a "Mother-May-I" relationship with faceless Washington bureaucrats.
Take Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), for example. She has been widely mocked for calling on the weaponized Federal Trade Commission to investigate a monopoly on sandwich production. While Warren’s lonely war on "Big Sandwich" is laughable, it is illustrative of the Left’s broader plan to increase government control over the economy. "We don’t need another private equity deal that could lead to higher food prices for consumers," Warren posted on X. "The FTC is right to investigate whether the purchase of Subway by the same firm that owns Jimmy Johns and McAlister’s Deli creates a sandwich shop monopoly."
At the risk of wasting ink debunking the plainly obvious, Roark Capital’s pending purchase of the Subway brand would not create a sandwich shop monopoly. Anyone can make a sandwich by putting ingredients between two slices of bread. Roark Capital's purchase of Subway would not obliterate the mom and pop delicatessens, cafes, and restaurants that populate every town in America. Grocery stores will still sell sandwich ingredients. The sky will not fall.
This is not the first time Warren has called for the Biden administration to dismantle imaginary monopolies. In January 2022, Warren falsely claimed that Kroger was one of a handful of chains "dominating" the grocery industry and nefariously price gouging shoppers. Warren conveniently ignored the fact that more than 60 supermarket chains operate in her home state of Massachusetts, and over 70 supermarket chains operate in Ohio, where Kroger is headquartered.
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Progressive attacks on the private sector, like Warren’s sandwich screeds, have escalated as Democrats desperately try to run and hide from Bidenomics. In a nutshell, Bidenomics pushes people to buy things they do not want (like subsidized electric vehicles) while making the things they do want unaffordable. Instead of correctly attributing inflation to Biden’s reckless tax-and-spend agenda, Democrats blame "corporate greed" and rail against a perceived lack of competition in the economy.
The Democratic Party’s animating principle comes from Rahm Emanuel, who famously advised his bosses to never let a serious crisis go to waste. Democrats manufactured an economic crisis by paying people not to work and spending trillions of dollars of borrowed money in the name of COVID relief. By blaming the private sector for rising prices, leftists can then argue that more government intervention in the economy is necessary to right the ship.
The FTC has led the Biden administration’s mission to put government drones in control of the economy. Chairwoman Lina Khan has waged war on companies that she dislikes, filing frivolous antitrust lawsuits that typically implode in court in spectacular fashion. Khan has ripped up long-standing merger guidelines and sent threatening letters to companies looking to buy another business. Khan has also colluded with foreign regulators to attack American companies, sending staffers to the European Union on taxpayer dollars for unclear purposes.
Khan has been open about her plan all along, publicly grumbling that the government does not do enough to shape "economic outcomes." Khan has done enough damage to the economy in her short tenure with the powers already at her disposal. Imagine what Khan would do if Warren granted her even more power by expanding the FTC through legislation.
Given the Biden administration’s full-court press for more power over the economy, Warren’s war on "Big Sandwich" is no nothingburger.
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Tom Hebert is the Director of Competition and Regulatory Policy at Americans for Tax Reform and executive director of the Open Competition Center.
Elizabeth Warren’s war on sandwiches is no nothingburger
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09.12.2023
Left-wing Democrats are on a mission to expand government control over the economy. Instead of a vibrant free market buzzing with innovation and entrepreneurship, leftists want to put every company in a "Mother-May-I" relationship with faceless Washington bureaucrats.
Take Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), for example. She has been widely mocked for calling on the weaponized Federal Trade Commission to investigate a monopoly on sandwich production. While Warren’s lonely war on "Big Sandwich" is laughable, it is illustrative of the Left’s broader plan to increase government control over the economy. "We don’t need another private equity deal that could lead to higher food prices for consumers," Warren posted on X. "The FTC is right to investigate whether the purchase of Subway by the same firm that owns Jimmy Johns and McAlister’s Deli creates a sandwich shop monopoly."
At the risk of wasting ink debunking the plainly obvious, Roark Capital’s pending purchase of the Subway brand would not........
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