Freedom Line Blog

In one of the most outrageous examples of corporate welfare in recent memory, the owners of Atlanta Braves announced today that they are moving the team from its home at Turner Field in downtown Atlanta to a new stadium in suburban Cobb County.

Why would the Braves move from a convenient, fan-friendly stadium that’s only 17 years old to the traffic gridlock hell at the interchange of interstates I-75 and I-285? Because Cobb County officials bribed the team’s owners with $450 million of taxpayers’ money, that’s why.

That means failing business owners, struggling single mothers, the unemployed and families fighting to make ends meet will be forced to pick up most of the tab for the cost of a new state-of-the-art baseball stadium so the team’s owners don’t have to.

Of course, if the Braves owners wanted to write a check to finance the entire cost of the new stadium, they could. But why would they do that when they can just dupe taxpayers into paying for most of the stadium?

The Braves are owned by John C. Malone and Liberty Media, who also own QVC, Evite, ProFlowers and Overture Films, as well as holding large interests in Expedia, Barnes and Noble, Live Nation and SiriusXM, among other companies.

In other words, the last people who need a handout from hard working taxpayers are getting one, thanks to the dopes who run Cobb County.

By the standard rules of political compromise, Senator Jim DeMint could be forgiven if he decided not to wade into the fight over whether the Export-Import Bank gets reauthorized by Congress. The bank, which subsidizes the business ventures of American corporations overseas, counts Boeing as one of its biggest beneficiaries — and the aerospace giant has a major presence in DeMint’s home state of South Carolina.

As he makes clear in a new op-ed in the Greenville News, however, DeMint doesn’t take stances based on which interests they serve; he takes them based on what principles they represent. From the piece:

When Boeing’s home state labor union ganged up with President Barack Obama’s National Labor Relations Board to try to sue Boeing for building a new factory in North Charleston, I strongly supported Boeing’s freedom to build factories wherever they pleased.

More recently dust has been kicked over the extension of the Export-Import Bank, a federal program that subsidizes American businesses’ exports. Because Boeing receives Ex-Im subsidies, and because I favor winding down the Ex-Im Bank instead of increasing its budget, some ask if I went from being pro-Boeing to anti-Boeing.

Neither. All I’ve ever been is pro-freedom.

In both cases, my guiding principle is the same: liberty.

Freedom isn’t perfect, but it is fair. And any time government hands out favors, they’ll be unfair to someone.

When Washington picks winners and losers, in the end taxpayers always lose, and Ex-Im is no exception.

Kudos to Senator DeMint for standing on the side of liberty and equality before the law, and for opposing the trends toward rent-seeking and crony capitalism. We could use more like him in Washington.