Cronyism is an inherent outcome of the progressive vision of the administrative state.

Government distorts the free market and erodes public trust in our political system when it uses taxpayer funding and resources to give special advantages to private companies, industries and labor unions. It multiplies opportunities for corruption and favoritism by enlarging the scope of government and placing enormous power in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats.

Cronyism is the enemy of reform in education, the workplace, healthcare, health insurance and housing policies. It gives us financial regulation that protects the large at the cost of the small. Crony capitalism gives us special interest tax breaks, custom-designed regulations, and special exemptions for favored parties. It creates both subsidies and restrictions to tilt the market one way or the other. By putting the weight of government behind the status quo, it leads to economic stagnation.

As the Nobel prize winning economist Milton Friedman has said, “One of the reasons why I am in favor of less government is because when you have more government industrialists take it over. And the two together form a coalition against the ordinary worker and the ordinary consumer. I think business is a wonderful institution provided it has to face competition in the marketplace and it can’t get away with something except by producing a better product at a lower cost.”

We need leaders committed to limiting the size of government and it’s role in picking business winners and losers.