Obama’s Goldman Game

The Washington Times published an op-ed by Capital Research Center president Terrence Scanlon titled “Obama’s Goldman Game.”

Here’s the top of the article:

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent civil fraud charges against Goldman Sachs, the left’s favorite bank, are more than a little suspect – but not for the reasons you might expect.

It’s unclear what will happen with the case, involving an exotic investment gone bad, but at the same time, it’s clear that the unveiling of the civil action just happened to coincide with President Obama’s declaration of war on Wall Street.

There are other unusual “coincidences,” too.

Evidence has surfaced that as Goldman’s attorneys tried to cut a deal with the SEC over the potential charges, Goldman Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein visited the Obama White House at least four times.

The decision whether to sue the bank was so controversial within the SEC that members split 3 to 2 on filing the lawsuit. Chairman Mary Schapiro, an Obama appointee, and the two Democrats on the commission voted yes, while the two Republicans voted no.

Add to this that Goldman just hired former Obama White House counsel Gregory B. Craig, the lawyer who helped President Clinton send 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez back to communist Cuba a decade ago.

Then factor in that Goldman is a creature of the political left and a natural ally of the Democratic Party. It is a big-government lovers’ bank that despises the unbridled competition of laissez-faire capitalism. Akin to Fannie Mae in that it generates private profits but forces taxpayers to cover its losses, Goldman loves bailouts and feeding at the public trough.

Former Goldman employees – including Henry Paulson, President George W. Bush’s liberal, tree-hugging Treasury secretary – designed the $700-billion-plus “mother of all bailouts” in 2008 and then promptly steered $10 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to the bank. Goldman veteran Neel Kashkari oversaw the doling out of bailout funds.

Goldman funds the left almost exclusively, so, as the left likes to say, follow the money. […]