Obama's 'Emergency'

In this editorial from Investors Business Daily, noted economist Thomas Sowell takes a look at the performance of the Obama administration so far and concludes that it is cynical, amateurish and ignorant. In the first few weeks of this administration we have seen them go from failure to failure with hardly a break. Sowell argues that the Democrats are using the current situation, talking down the economy and claiming an immanent catastrophe, in order to pass their agenda as quickly as possible with as little questioning or debate as possible. And it's pretty obvious for all who care to look at the facts that this is what they are doing.

The urgency was real, even if the reason given was phony. Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, let slip a valuable clue when he said that a crisis should not go to waste, that a crisis is an opportunity to do things that you could not do otherwise.

Think about the utter cynicism of that. During a crisis, a panicked public will let you get away with things you couldn't get away with otherwise.

A corollary of that is that you had better act quickly while the crisis is at hand, without congressional hearings or public debates about what you are doing. Above all, you must act before the economy begins to recover on its own.

The party line is that the market has failed so disastrously that only the government can save us. It is proclaimed in Washington and echoed in the media.

The last thing the administration can risk is delay that could allow the market to begin recovering on its own. That would undermine, if not destroy, a golden opportunity to restructure the U.S. economy in ways that would allow politicians to micromanage other sectors of the economy the way they have micromanaged the housing market into disaster.

Meanwhile we have had a string of individuals with tax problems put forward by the administration and then withdrawn when those problems came to light. Taxes for me but not for thee seems to be the rule for Democrats and it has been amusing to see the blatant hypocrisy of Dems who want us all to pay for bigger, more intrusive government while avoiding the responsibility of supporting those ideas themselves. Regular Americans are asking why the big shots don't have to play by the rules. The Democrats have provided no answers.

We have seen the Porkulous bill pass through the congress, but with no real support from the Republicans. Only three sad and pathetic RINOs voted for it and then only because they needed attention from the media. The bulk of the Republicans in congress have, at least for the moment, come to their senses and realized that sending the country down the road to socialism is not really a good idea for them or the rest of us. And so after a flood of calls, emails, letters and petitions they voted against the Generational Theft Act that is designed to socialize as much of the American economy as possible. The bill has been signed by the Obama-Fuhrer as expected, but no one is under any illusions that it is "bipartisan" nor should they be. From here on out the poor economic consequences of the massive government spending on the part of Democrats will belong to them only, and the Republicans will be able to point to the problems caused by this bill and say that they tried to stop it. And this bill will cause economic problems down the road, just as many economists are predicting.

And indeed, there is little evidence so far to indicate that this will be a successful run for the Democrats. The reverse is more likely to be true. For they are using the current situation to try to push through their plans to turn America into another version of socialist Europe. And in the short run they will probably achieve some of that goal. But most Americans in the last election weren't voting to become Europe. They were voting to fix the economic problems that we are facing. In poll after poll America remains a center-right nation. The problem of course is that the Obama-Fuhrer presented himself as a moderate during the campaign, as is always the case when leftists run for a major office. Obama knew that he would not be able to win by presenting himself as the angry bitter leftist that he really is. Americans don't vote for angry leftist as a rule. But they will give you a chance if you present yourself as a moderate.

Now Americans are waking up to the bait-and-switch that they have been sold and many of them are starting to have buyer's remorse, just as conservative observers have predicted. For the Obama-Fuhrer is using the current situation in the economy to claim that we are headed for the end of the world unless we follow his rule without question and do exactly what he wants. And the early incompetence of his administration is not a good sign. Naturally, that makes a lot of people nervous.

And you should be.