"Hyporkracy"

I’ve been out of action the past week while the Mrs. & I have been transitioning to our winter refuge in The Foreclosure State, Florida.

On yesterday’s “Meet the Depressed” Obama gave a preview of his post-Presidential career, sit down comedy. With a perfectly straight face he made two irreconcilable announcements. The first was a huge new spending program, the largest since the Interstate Highway project during the Eisenhower years. The second was a message to Congress that “the days of pork-barrel spending are over.”

I can see Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi falling down laughing together on that one. With something like a half-trillion dollars of newly printed money being poured into the trough, the pigs will have a feeding frenzy. Former law professor Obama must have forgotten that the Constitution gives Congress the power to spend. Rare is the Member who will pledge a vote for a spending bill without first having a promise of some “pork” (a bridge, museum, road, park, etc.) for his or her district.

Obama also criticized Bush for not doing more to help homeowners who borrowed money they couldn’t repay to buy houses they couldn’t afford.
“I’m disappointed we have not seen quicker movement on this issue by the (Bush) Administration,” he said, adding, “If it’s not done during the transition it will be done by me.”

However, The Wall Street Journal reported that “Barack Obama’s transition team is resisting Bush Administration overtures to coordinate more on the financial-sector rescue…” The Journal also said, “Treasury staff wanted to brief the Obama team on the various proposals the Fed and Treasury were discussing and to gauge their level of interest in doing something to help homeowners… When (the Bush team) finished outlining their proposals, Treasury staff asked the Obama aides for their impressions. The aides demurred, refusing to endorse any of the ideas. When asked …how they envisioned a foreclosure mitigation program working, they were non-committal…”

Obviously, Obama would rather let desperate mortgagees twist in the wind a while longer than have to share credit with Bush for any relief.