posted at 10:12 am on July 19, 2011 by Ed Morrissey
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Steve Wynn knows what a bad bet looks like. One of the acknowledged visionaries of modern Las Vegas and gaming worldwide, Wynn has built his fortune on widely-dispersed disposable income and the copious leisure time not just of the wealthy but also of the middle and working classes. He also has to meet a large payroll (several of them, actually) and make critical decisions on investments, both personally and professionally. So when the 69-year-old Wynn declares that Barack Obama has been the “greatest wet blanket to business and progress and job creation in my lifetime,” it’s an expert opinion.
And that’s not even the most incendiary thing Wynn said:
And I’m saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I can prove it and I could spend the next 3 hours giving you examples of all of us in this market place that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right. A President that seems, that keeps using that word redistribution. Well, my customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry, in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration. And it makes you slow down and not invest your money. Everybody complains about how much money is on the side in America.As it turns out, Wynn isn’t a big fan of redistributionism, either (emphasis mine):
You bet and until we change the tempo and the conversation from Washington, it’s not going to change. And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President. And a lot of people don’t want to say that. They’ll say, God, don’t be attacking Obama. Well, this is Obama’s deal and it’s Obama that’s responsible for this fear in America.
The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don’t invest, their holding too much money. We haven’t heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. Everybody’s afraid of the government and there’s no need soft peddling it, it’s the truth. It is the truth. And that’s true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid. I support Democrats and Republicans. And I’m telling you that the business community in this company is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he’s gone, everybody’s going to be sitting on their thumbs.If Wynn is afraid of the “weird political philosophy” of Obama, then perhaps he should rethink his support of Harry Reid. After all, the Senate Majority Leader has spent the last two-plus years doing nothing else but carrying Obama’s weird political water on Capitol Hill. How exactly has Reid differed from Obama in that time? Perhaps Wynn should have th0ught about that before maxing out his donation to Reid in 2009.
In fact, a look at Wynn’s contributions over the previous two electoral cycles confirms that he donates to both Republicans and Democrats. Wynn appears to favor Republicans over Democrats slightly in the previous three-plus years, but not by much. Notable for its absence, however, is any donation to Barack Obama. Most of his contributions to Democratic candidates took place in the 2008 cycle, although he did max out to Reid as noted in the 2010 cycle as well as to Rep. Shelley Berkley in his own state, as well as Rep. Charlie Rangel and gave a thousand dollars to Rep. Bennie Thompson. Did Wynn believe that Rangel, Thompson, and Berkley would make Obamanomics less scary? Wynn may know what a bad bet looks like, but that hasn’t kept him from making a few himself.
Otherwise, Wynn gets to the heart of the problem with Obama and his “weird” Obamanomics. It’s all about class warfare, not economic growth or health, and most of those in the business world who made the same bad bet are belatedly realizing it.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/07/19/vegas-mogul-blasts-obama-as-greatest-wet-blanket-to-business-job-creation-in-my-lifetime/
