Fannie Mae Chief Executive Franklin Raines insists that his outfit has no plans to move beyond its congressionally mandated business of creating a secondary market for mortgages: "It's the only business we can be in, it's a business we're happy with, and we have no desire to be in another business".
Douglas said he does not believe government should mandate businesses to raise wages — or to require much of anything, really, including sick leave.
"We don't need these Obama-style mandates telling business how to run their business," said Abbott, adding that the "free market" should decide wages, not the federal government.
Yet in the crazy world of American politics circa 2010, forcing green procurement mandates on business would be very difficult.
It is also troubling to me that a supposedly progressive president would champion a law that mandates doing business with corporations as a requirement of citizenship.
It seems opponents are making more of a moral argument about the role of government mandates on business, the piece points out.
Mandates on business, new taxes, and new workplace standards: conservatives would tell you that this is a recipe for economic disaster.
To save money on-budget, the federal government often mandates that businesses or state and local governments undertake some activity.
But instead, it says, "Congress is trying to use special rules to ram through their same trillion-dollar health care bill," with "billions in new taxes and more mandates on businesses".
Instead, state legislatures around the country will point to the "success" of California to justify their own set of higher taxes and costly mandates, hurting businesses, citizens and economic growth.
