Tag Archives: Economy

Obama – What’s His Endgame?

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Charles Krauthammer thinks President Obama’s endgame is “Leveling“:

Obama is a leveler. He has come to narrow the divide between rich and poor. For him the ultimate social value is fairness. Imposing it upon the American social order is his mission.

Fairness through leveling is the essence of Obamaism. (Asked by Charlie Gibson during a campaign debate about his support for raising capital gains taxes — even if they caused a net revenue loss to the government — Obama stuck to the tax hike “for purposes of fairness.”) The elements are highly progressive taxation, federalized health care and higher education, and revenue-producing energy controls. But first he must deal with the sideshows. They could sink the economy and poison his public support before he gets to enact his real agenda.

The “side shows” are the credit crisis, which , and the collapse of the U.S. automakers. Tim Geithner now wears the credit crisis as an albatross around his neck while Obama may come to rue his despotic intervention into the car business. Krauthammer doubts that this intrusion will leave lasting effects on our nation saying only, “Some find in this “descent into large-scale industrial policy a whiff of 1930s-style fascist corporatism.”

Obama’s real agenda is another matter in Krauthammers view:

Bizarre and constitutionally suspect as these interventions may be, the transformation of the American system will come from elsewhere. The credit crisis will pass and the auto overcapacity will sort itself out one way or the other. The reordering of the American system will come not from these temporary interventions, into which Obama has reluctantly waded. It will come from Obama’s real agenda: his holy trinity of health care, education and energy. Out of these will come a radical extension of the welfare state; social and economic leveling in the name of fairness; and a massive increase in the size, scope and reach of government.

I mention Charles Krauthammer’s observation because I find it very troubling that as busy as constitutional scholars were during the Bill Clinton impeachment days, we hear little from them now.  History should have taught us what times of national crisis especially collapse have wrought in a nation which has been otherwise civilized. For example, Richard J Evans who wrote of Hitler’s endgame in his just released The Third Reich at War states that in of a previous book of his trilogy, The Coming of the Third Reich :

“I’m trying to be comprehensive, to show Nazi Germany and Nazi society at war in every aspect. In addition to the much better known military aspects, I try to deal with culture, literature, the arts. And I have human experiences — diaries, letters, personal testimonies.

In “The Coming of the Third Reich,” I try to say that it was not inevitable while pointing out that the Weimar Republic did, in fact, bring Nazism. The crucial point to remember is that in the 1928 elections, Nazis scored less than 3% of the national vote. By 1932 they were by far the largest party, with one third of the vote. So it’s the Depression. More than one third of the work force is unemployed by the middle of 1932. Businesses have crashed; banks have bankruptcies; people are disoriented by terrible inflation. It’s a desperate situation. And in that situation, the sense of activism, dynamism, youth, vigor, and radicalism that Hitler and the Nazis conveyed, tapping into nationalist resentment about the Treaty of Versailles with vague but vehement promises to restore Germany to its greatness…. All that had an irresistible appeal.

In “Can it happen here” (read the comments too!) Bookworm writes:

“…it’s worth noting that, when Hitler came to power in 1933, he did so with just barely more than 50% of the popular vote.  There was never a time when the majority of Germans were members of the Nazi party.  For most Germans, right through the end of the War, their crime wasn’t active complicity with Nazi atrocities, it was passive complicity.  From a mixture of fear and brain washing, they just went along.

The Anchoress writing of lost freedom and persecution, wonders how much American will tolerate before realizing that freedom “is lost in increments and inches.”

As the magic that unleashed a relatively unknown Barack Hussein Obama onto the political scene and now world scene, do we really know what we have unleashed.  Changes has come so quickly and gone unchallenged by any in a position to slow them down or investigate them such as our Congress who should be the voice of balance for the Nation.  As I asked before where are the voices of our constitutional gurus? For that matter, where is our Congress and its role of checks and balances. What will the out to lunch Congress cost us?

Power Hungry and Out of Balance

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Ace of Spades calls it a good piece:

Charles Krauthammer can’t write fast enough to keep up with all the crap he can’t believe is happening. “We are now so deep into government intervention that constitutional objections are summarily swept aside.” Seizing every opportunity to seize, seize, seize power for the government from the people, Geithner “seeks yet broader powers.”

Obama’s goal, writes Krauthammer,

“is to rewrite the American social compact, to recast the relationship between government and citizen. He wants government to narrow the nation’s income and anxiety gaps. Soak the rich for reasons of revenue and justice. Nationalize health care and federalize education to grant all citizens of all classes the freedom from anxiety about health care and college that the rich enjoy. And fund this vast new social safety net through the cash cow of a disguised carbon tax.

Our President seems naive about the goodness and fairness of Big Government.  Our founders  were not so naive about the weakness of men and statesmen, hence checks and balances.  The present disproportionate numbers in the Congress of Republicans to Democrats cripples that system.  We are off kilter and in trouble.

While Capitalism needs corrective checks and balances, with a heavy dose of scrutiny, to cure it’s ills, Big Government isn’t the one to take over for the patient. Share holders are more invested and intuitive than this generation of gobbling government bureaucrats.  We can’t trust our lawmakers to steer clear of side line profit-making or taking as the scandalous last years have shown. (You know the names.)

President Obama’s medicine is to level field by cutting the growth producers in this nation off at the knees.  Good luck Mr. President a crippled America will not fill your coffers for the Big Dole.

Tax Day Tea Party Doings

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InstaPundit directs tax day party-goers to google maps via FreedomWorks and more

Tea Party Protests gives you the video low down on the doings.

Magical Aura? – G 20 Dream

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The G 20 Summit gathers the nations (a group of 20: Argentina, Australia,Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia,Saudi Arabia,South Africa, Korea, Turkey,the United States, and European Union. The world will make a fuss and then the world will little note, nor long remember what they do there.  Or, is that just wishful thinking?

Our President will grace them with his presence, but will they recognize the Messiah?  The magical aura of campaign America is gone.  Billions of dollars are gone! The post of ”whipping boy” is still open.” That may be all Obama needs to get his foot in the door.  Obama can cry: “Mea culpa! Mea culpa! I will take the blame—My Country did it! But that was then, and this is now— I have a vision!”

Back in America, we are getting the picture.  We grasp the dream, the vision, the mania. My guess is more than half the country rejects it.  Some are too proud to admit their mistake, especially those of the mainstream media who paved his way. This is not a man who represents the people, all the people.  He represent himself and an agenda.  He is selling his vague vision wrapped in high sounding words, and smiles, and flash.

Poor America! Without a free, inquisitive, thinking press, the vision grows, under-investigated, and unchecked, and America’s dream will be signed away on foreign shores.

Looking Heavenward

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While some are in a tail-spin looking to for economic hope somewhere, others are looking to the stars.  No not horoscopes; the real thing, those twinkling bits of heaven. “Space enthusiasts consider themselves lobbyists for mankind, and they argue that even science fiction has practical applications.”

“Much of the world is focused on the travails of the global economy. We’re bombarded by news of layoffs and foreclosures.” There is hope hovering above our heads. Those with their heads in the stars are “making an extra effort to look beyond our little planet.  They argue that this age of uncertainty is actually a good time to dream mankind’s biggest dreams. And they’re being encouraged by space-exploration proponents who are finding new ways to involve amateur astronomers.

Last month, the International Space Station, while docked with the shuttle Discovery, was visible to the naked eye. My wife found out the exact minute they would fly over our home in Michigan, and we brought our kids out to the driveway to watch. Sure enough, at the appointed time, a clear bright light arced across the sky 220 miles above us. We were all just wowed. It was an awe-inspiring respite from the challenges down here on Earth.

“We have forgotten the thrill of landing a person on another celestial body. Could there be anything more important than reminding ourselves of just how great we can be?”

Rallying Point for Citizens

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InstaPundit on behalf of Simon Jester:

Here is where we could use your help. Submit your t-shirt ideas. Send us articles about dumb government. Even send us pictures of you and your neighbors at a tea party, esp. if you are sporting a Simon Jester! We will publish your pictures down there in the gallery, investigate your articles and give our take on them, and some new designs are already in the works. We aim to be a source of information and a rallying point for citizens who love the liberty inherent in all men and codified in our founding documents.