Yeah, thank God we got hope and change in the nick of time:
The Justice Department’s “Operation Choke Point” initiative has been shrouded in secrecy, but now it is starting to come to light. I first heard about the program in January through this article and since then it has been difficult to discover details about it. It is so named because through strangling the providers of financial services to the targeted industries, the government can “choke off” the oxygen (money) needed for these industries to survive. Without an ability to process payments, the businesses – especially online vendors — cannot survive.
The general outline is the DOJ and bank regulators are putting the screws to banks and other third-party payment processors to refuse banking services to companies and industries that are deemed to pose a “reputation risk” to the bank. Most controversially, the list of dubious industries is populated by enterprises that are entirely, or at least generally, legal.
And note that the government is simultaneously encouraging banks to handle marijuana commerce.
In what world of a working Constitution does it even matter what legal businesses the government approves or disapproves?
As the saying goes, a government big enough to give you everything you need or want is big enough to take away everything you need or want.
Tip to Instapundit.
