In his victory speech, Barack Obama referred to The Great Depression, talked about “remaking the Nation brick by brick” and assured us “Our union can be perfected.” Time will tell if this was merely a manifestation of his hubris and self-delusion of whether he was starting to prepare Americans for the major shift to the left that he hopes to impose.
His Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, said that the first order of business would be some executive orders to prevent drilling in Utah and restore Federal funding for stem-cell research. Next will be a new stimulus plan. Then would come “the four reforms,” education, health care, energy and taxes.
Education reform does not mean improving results by introducing more competition and choice into the system. It means paying off the teachers’ unions by throwing more money at them. Talk about “the failed policies of the past.”
Healthcare reform doesn’t mean giving more control to Doctors and patients. Nor does it mean tort reform to control ruinous litigation. It means giving more control to Washington bureaucrats and pouring more taxpayer dollars into the industry, thus increasing demand and, therefore, costs.
Energy reform means more restrictions on developing our most efficient domestic sources and subsidizing uneconomical alternative sources like wind and solar that will take decades to begin to replace coal and oil and natural gas. Remember the campaign promises about “reducing our reliance on foreign oil”? This will end up being the big middle class tax increase when fuel and energy prices skyrocket in a few years.
Tax reform means higher taxes for that shrinking percentage that pays taxes. This will lead to a weak economy, declining living standards and, the real point, more reliable Democrat votes from an increased number of people dependent on government.
But the best plans can get derailed. When asked by a reporter what would shape his term in office, former British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan replied, “Events, my dear boy, events.” George W. Bush can attest to that, since the 9/11 attacks eight months after he took office set the agenda for his entire two terms.
There’s another reality that will put a damper on Obama’s utopian vision. When Bill and Hillary Clinton were laying out their grandiose plans in 1993, then Treasury Secretary, Bob Rubin, rudely informed them that the bond market would respond with punishing interest rates, causing a recession and assuring Bill of being a one-termer. We can only hope.
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