The Method Revealed

As a follow-up to my previous post, I think the President's modus operandi is now clear. He makes agreeable noises, language inoffensive to all, then pushes bills through Congress that are full of controversy, and that in some cases, contradict his spoken intentions.

All of it without debate, or due diligence, that Congress is supposed to provide. After all, this is an emergency.

It is interesting to note that after the State of the Union speech, Obama's public opinion approval ratings held, and even the markets ticked up the next day... until the budget was actually published, whereupon the markets plunged, just as they had immediately after the housing bill was announced. Of course, investors aren't as moved by rhetoric as they are by details and the numbers, because their job is figuring out how government policy will affect the value of capital.

That should be instructive to us taxpayers.

And now, this morning, I read that he will pursue Cap and Trade sooner rather than later. Here's the deal: Government experts tell you (individual or corporation) how much carbon you can consume. You pay fines to Uncle Sam if you exceed the limits. Uncle Sam then distributes the fines to the middle class and the poor (or in the vernacular of the Obama White House, "the vulnerable") to help them pay for the higher energy costs that Cap and Trade created in the first place.

In his speech, Obama told us that he will see to it that renewable energy becomes more affordable. He didn't say that he would do so by driving up the cost of oil, coal and gas generated energy.

But that is exactly what he is proposing, and it is consistent with the thinking of the Earth First / No-Growth crowd, who would have us canning beats for the winter rather than buying avocados from California. It all makes you wonder how far he wants to take the extremist environmental agenda.

Really, it should come as no surprise for those of us who raised an eyebrow last summer when he was asked how he felt about $4/gallon gas, and responded that it was a shame only that the price went up to fast. See the video...



Again, the words provide only a hint of the actions.

Such a convoluted scheme as Cap and Trade could be very disruptive, of course, and it deserves extended study and debate before a vote. Whether or not we get the debate we deserve, or not, will be evidence of how circumspect Obama is, and how wise.

The Vision Revealed?

A brief followup to my previous post on Robert Reich... Please see the excellent American Spectator commentary on Robert Reich's testimony to House Ways & Means. The author gets right to the crux of the problem with Reich and many of Obama's followers (if not Obama himself), and of leftist ideology in general:

In Reich's worldview, it's groups that matter and individualism that's the enemy. "The American myth of the Triumphant Individual may have outlasted its time," Reich has explained. "The story of the little guy who works hard, takes risks, believes in himself and eventually earns wealth, fame and honor" is outmoded.

I believe this is what divides supporters of market-driven and planned economies, of republican democracy and totalitarianism, and increasingly, of free speech and "political correctness," the Maoist phrase that has eerily become a commonplace in American vernacular. It's time for us all to re-read Atlas Shrugged, as well as the Communist Manifesto. That so many of our countrymen and women voted for the latter last November is surprising, and troubling.

There is a good chance, however, that most of them did not vote for socialism, or whatever you want to call Obama's or Reich's central-planning ideas, but that they voted for its obtuse facade: Change.

Week by week, we are seeing the facade fall away and expose the aspirations of the new regime. Fortunately, there is always a gap between the aspirations of a regime, and its actual achievements. The tug-of-war around the so-called Stimulus Package is a good example. As presently constituted, it is a third pork, 50 per cent political payoff to groups like ACORN, the teachers and public service unions, etc., and 12-20% stimulus (dependong on the source) -- spending that we know will enter the economy quickly and result in hiring.

Of course, Obama does not need any Republican support to pass this bill as presently constituted. He needs their support only for political cover, to share the blame if things don't go as planned (a near certainty in the execution of government programs).

Instead of using his bully pulpit to cajole his Congressional majority to strip the bill of things unrelated to job creation, yesterday Obama used it to mock Republican (and a healthy number of Democrat) critics. One week he says he is interested in ideas that produce results, not ideology. The next week -- with a trillion dollars hanging in the balance -- he is taking a party line. This is disappointing.