I AM PAUL WILSON

I wish he was a polticion

March 12, 2009 12:00 AM
Now Obama Tells Us?
What an honest campaign would have sounded like.
By Victor Davis Hanson

Imagine that last fall, before being elected, Barack Obama had outlined the positions he has embraced since being inaugurated. An honest campaign speech could have gone something like this:
“As we approach Election Day, the American people should not waste the crisis we find ourselves in.
“Consequently, if elected, I promise to get us over the Bush financial meltdown with a stimulus program that will borrow $787 billion — which, of course, will add to the already sizable budget deficit (nearly $500 billion) projected in the Bush administration’s last budget.
“By March of next year, my new $3.6 trillion budget will include a spending bill with over 8,500 budget earmarks to target in-need constituents.

“In addition to the stimulus/borrowing plan, I intend to devote $634 billion to fund a new supplementary national health-care system. But that is not all. Unfortunately, the initial Bush bank bailout of some $700 billion also may well have to be augmented by an additional $750 billion.
“Although my new spending proposals may raise the federal deficit in my first year to $1.75 trillion, I promise the American people that by the end of my first term, I will halve the federal deficit — albeit adding another $3 to $5 trillion to the national debt.
“Those savings can be accomplished by upping the federal income tax to about 40 percent on those rich 5 percent of Americans who currently pay only 60 percent of our aggregate income taxes — as well as lifting Social Security caps on their payroll taxes and cutting out many of their tax deductions.
“With state income taxes, federal income tax, and Social Security and payroll taxes, along with new cutbacks in deductions, some of these rich will pay over 60 percent of their incomes in taxes. That is not an unreasonable rate in comparison with past levels — or the fact that well over 40 percent of Americans do not make enough to pay any federal income taxes.
“I expect that Wall Street may react negatively to these proposals. We may see the Dow fall an additional 2,000 to 3,000 points after I’m elected. It may descend to under 7,000 during my first weeks of office. And this may be the moment when the economy continues to cool and unemployment rises.
“But to deal with this reaction of entrenched interests, I promise a fresh team of hard-nosed American professionals — understanding that it is impossible to ensure that none have past insider connections and occasional tax problems.
“From the former Clinton administration, I will select Rahm Emanuel to run my staff. To oversee revenue, Timothy Geithner will assemble a large team at Treasury. Senator Clinton herself will run State, and I will anchor my cabinet with pros like Tom Daschle, Eric Holder, Bill Richardson, and Hilda Solis.
“On matters of protecting civil liberties, I assure the American people that I have examined the Patriot Act, the FISA accords, and renditions — and I have discovered that they, in fact, do not shred our Constitution. I will, however, shut down Guantanamo Bay — but must keep it open another year and appoint a task force to study the issue.
“Our new direction in energy policy will center on cap-and-trade initiatives that promote wind and solar power. While we won’t rule out oil, gas, coal, and nuclear development, problems with greenhouse-gas emissions and nuclear waste mean that these ossified 20th-century industries — including new offshore-drilling development — must be discouraged and further taxed or regulated to subsidize our green future.
“Abroad, I promise to give America a new image. My first television interview will be with al Arabiya. Due to both new initiatives and my unique background, I can reassure them that no longer will the United States alienate the Muslim world. Our aim is to return to stable and friendly relations with the Middle East characteristic of 20-30 years ago.
“Indeed, on matters in the Middle East, I will bring back my suspended adviser Samantha Power. I look forward to her input, along with that of Charles Freeman, former ambassador to Saudi Arabia and critic of Israel, as head of the National Intelligence Council, to craft new directions in the region.
“We expect to open new dialogues with Basher al-Assad of Syria and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran without preconditions. And to further the cause of peace in the Middle East, the United States will pledge almost $1 billion to help rebuild the Gaza strip that is governed by Hamas.”
Now all that would have been hope and change that we could have voted on.

— Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a recipient of the 2007 National Humanities Medal. © 2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

From Capitalism Magazine: Obama’s Plans Will ‘Work’ — To Breed Servile Dependence by Richard Salsman.

Oddly, these [conservative] “critics” [of Obama's economic policies] bestow undeserved compliments on their political opponents – and thus provide them with crucial political cover. By implicitly praising their enemy’s underlying motives, these critics effectively shield them from justified criticism. The critics who argue this way – including Rush Limbaugh – unwittingly carry water for President Obama. By insisting the schemes “won’t work,” the “critics” mean they won’t work to grow the economy – won’t revive the stock market – won’t fix the banks – won’t attract capitalists on strike – won’t bolster job creation – and won’t lift the poor out of poverty. Well, all that’s true, but it’s false to assume the Obama administration actually wants to achieve these things.

In fact, it wants no such thing.

It has other ideas — a wholly opposite aim.

Besides a desire for re-election, shared by all politicians, at root the Obama Administration wants individuals and firms to become more dependent on government. That requires not merely a more intensive redistribution of wealth to the needy (whether needy people or needy firms), but also programs and plans that might proliferate the ranks of the needy, even if that requires turning otherwise healthy people and firms into unhealthy, needy ones.

Mr. Salsman is exactly right. Mr. Obama does want to convert te entire country, people and businesses into welfare dependent Zombies. An outrageous sized government. Take a look at the banks, financial institutions and the auto companies. They are now under government scrutiny with possible punishment if they don’t toe the line.

Private citizens will not be far behind. Tucked way down deep in that porkulus bill was an amendment to give the IRS a lot more power. The right to privacy is a thing of the past.

The country is upside down, all brought to you by a Chicago Community Organizer. All the libs and the Demoncrats in Washington are singing Koom-Ba-Ya with the Dead Cat Bounce the stock market is going through. It goes up a couple hundred points over a five day period and they think the recession is over. If you don’t mind, I am going to continue to protect my money until I see what happens when the bill comes due on all this spending. For cripes sake he is pushing through a three and one half trillion dollar budget. It looks like it is on the fast track and the Republicans wont even be able to block it. I’m watching that idiot Robert Gibbs in the endless press conferences, they are using smoke and mirrors. Getting people to concentrate on getting back the money AIG paid out in bonuses which were contracted well before the bail out money was doled out. It was only 163 million dollars, we are supposed to ignore the 170 billion dollars they received in the bailout, how much of that money did they use to shore up the business? The answer is easy, I don’t need a calculator, NONE. They shuffled it off to other banks. I should put a bank sign in front of my house, I’ll call it (Poor Man’s Bank)

This all makes me sick