Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin on Friday slammed United States President-elect Donald Trump's tax deal negotiation with Carrier company and called it "crony capitalism".
Trump and vice president-elect Mike Pence on Thursday helped in arranging a sum of $7 million in Indiana tax breaks over the next 10 years for the multinational firm, Carrier, in exchange for the company's assurance to keep at least 800 of the 1,400 jobs in the United States instead of moving those jobs to Mexico. Trump also threatened the firm with stiff tariff on its products if it sent all the work across the border.
Carrier Corporation had planned to move a factory in Indianapolis to Mexico, taking 1,400 jobs along with it across the border.
"Republicans oppose this, remember? Instead, we support competition on a level playing field, remember? Because we know special interest crony capitalism is one big fail," Palin wrote in an op-ed on the Young Conservatives website.
"A business must have freedom to locate where it wishes," she continued. "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 added in an unexpected criticism of Trump's moves.
Palin also said that selectively choosing favourite companies that will receive "corporate welfare" is a "hallmark of corruption socialism." She said that a $20 trillion debt-ridden country can't afford this "sinfully stupid practice, so vigilantly guard against its continuance, or we're doomed."
The former Alaska governor said that such a deal struck by Trump with Carrier could also encourage other businesses to threaten to leave the country so that they can receive similar breaks. She said that these kinds of negotiations with firms will only motivate the companies to blackmail the government.
