Former Gov. Sarah Palin has criticized President-elect Donald Trump's deal with the Carrier, in which as reported previously the air conditioner company would not outsource 1,100 workers to Mexico in exchange for $7 million in tax incentives over 10 years, saying that it yet another example of "corporate welfare." The harsh criticism of Trump's economic policy comes as she is reportedly under consideration to serve as Trump's secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Writing an op-ed in the Young Conservatives blog, Palin said that while he is excited for the Carrier employees whose jobs are staying in Indiana, saying the deal is "a relief for hundreds of workers... Merry Christmas Indiana!”, she then joins Bernie Sanders and other critics in vlasting the deal as “crony capitalism" and an example of the "hallmark of corruption" and "socialism", adding the arrangement could set "inconsistent, unfair and illogical precedent."

Suggesting that the Trump deal is a carryover from the Obama administration's "crony" ways of doing business, Palin wrote that “when government steps in arbitrarily with individual subsidies, favoring one business over others, it sets inconsistent, unfair, illogical precedent. Then, special interests creep in and manipulate markets. Republicans oppose this, remember?”

“Instead, we support competition on a level playing field, remember? Because we know special interest crony capitalism is on big fail.”

Palin then made a statement many conservatives and virtually all libertarians would agree with, saying that "however well meaning, burdensome federal government imposition is never the solution. Never. Not in our homes, not in our schools, not in churches, not in businesses.”

Seemingly not concerned that her outburst may potentially cost her an administration position, after Palin was reported to be considered for a spot in Trump’s administration, an aide to Palin said the former governor said “I feel as though the megaphone I have been provided can be used in a productive and positive way to help those desperately in need.”

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The criticism to the Carrier deal came from both sides of the ideological aisle: in addition to Palin, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers likewise blasted Trump’s deal, labeling the president-elect’s intervention as a dangerous shift away from American capitalism.

Summers, a Democrat who was Treasury chief under Bill Clinton, argued that rich and successful countries have a strong foundation of rules-based capitalism. He said Trump skirted that tradition when he used a “combination of carrots and sticks” to prevent United Technologies from sending jobs at its Carrier plant to Mexico. He called that “an act of ad hoc deal capitalism.”

“A principle is being established: it is good for the President to try to figure out what people want and lean on companies to give it to them,” Summers wrote in a blog post Friday. “Presidents have enormous latent power and it is the custom of restraint in its use that is one of the important differences between us and banana republics.” Summers warned that “the negotiation with Carrier is a small thing that is actually a very big thing -- a change very much for the worse with regards to the operating assumptions of American capitalism.”

While Palin's criticism at least conforms with her ideological convictions, the Sanders reaction reeks of hypocricy. Coming from a man who has long urged for relentless government regulation, intervention in aspects of the economy, and has demanded an ever greater role for the fed, we find it painfully ironic, not to mention amusing that a sworn neo-Keynsian is now suggesting that the economy cannot function optimally without government intervention, and as a result is now calling Trump anti-capitalistic.

We expect many more such ideologicial "slips" from both the left and the right in the coming weeks and months, as Trump - for better or worse - engagaes in acts which were previously blasted under the Obama administration, and which will now be mocked and ridiculed by the same people who cheered them on for the past 8 years. Far more interesting will be Trump's reaction to criticism by the likes of Palin and other conservatives, and whether or not he will respond by moderating his approach, or push on.

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The full Sarah Palin op-ed is below: