Business

‘When I grow up, I want to be a crony!’ [VIDEO]

Christopher Bedford Former Editor in Chief, The Daily Caller News Foundation
Font Size:

A new video about crony capitalism by free-market group Crony Chronicles is making the rounds online, attracting nearly 40,000 viewers in just one day.

The darkly humorous video, featuring children talking about how they want to grow up to be federal regulators and lobbyists, attracted the attention of a large number of conservative think tanks and blogs. It highlights the election-season clashes of the GOP’s anti-regulation, free market tea party faction against groups of both Democrats and Republicans.

Democrats, they say, are slamming Wall Street leaders as “fat cats” while accepting donations and giving generous subsidies to favored industries. And they believe Republicans, meanwhile, slam liberals while pushing the interests of big business donors under the guise of free-market politics. (RELATED: Former tea party darling Nikki Haley now attracts scorn from SC conservative groups)

“Our children used to have big dreams,” the video begins, as children in a circa 1960s settings talk about their plans for success in private enterprise. “What are you children learning today?”

“I’m going to Capitol Hill to work on a committee to put whatever my friends want into legislation,” one young girl says. “When I grow up, I want to be a crony!” (RELATED: Obama donor’s SEC fines ten times more than Obama contributions)

What is a crony, exactly? The kids explain it.

“It’s like having a best friend who give you other people’s stuff,” one child says, over haunting background music. “We get paid not to work. We take care of our friends. The tax code is so complicated, nobody knows how we get rich.”

“I want to build a big government program for all my crony friends. They won’t have to play by the rules. … We get to spend taxpayer money any way we want.”

Watch:

Oh, the American Dream: “Why be a taxpayer when I can be a tax spender?”

Follow Christopher on Twitter

Christopher Bedford

Follow Bedford on Twitter