Obama’s big bang agenda
WASHINGTON — Forget the pork. Forget the waste. Forget the 8,570 earmarks in a bill supported by a president who poses as the scourge of earmarks. Forget the “$2 trillion in savings” that “we have already identified,” $1.6 trillion of which President Obama’s budget director later admits is the “savings” of not continuing the surge in Iraq until 2019—11 years after George Bush ended it, and eight years after even Bush would have had us out of Iraq completely.
Forget all of this. This is run-of-the-mill budget trickery. True, Obama’s tricks come festooned with strings of zeros tacked onto the end. But that’s a matter of scale, not principle.
All presidents do that. But few undertake the kind of brazen deception at the heart of Obama’s radically transformative economic plan, a rhetorical sleight of hand so smoothly offered that few noticed.
The logic of Obama’s address to Congress went like this:
“Our economy did not fall into decline overnight,” he averred. Indeed, it all began before the housing crisis.
What did we do wrong? We are paying for past sins in three principal areas: energy, health care, and education—importing too much oil and not finding new sources of energy (as in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Outer Continental Shelf?), not reforming health care, and tolerating too many bad schools.
The “day of reckoning” has arrived. And because “it is only by understanding how we arrived at this moment that we’ll be able to lift ourselves out of this predicament,” Obama has come to redeem us with his far-seeing program of universal, heavily nationalized health care; a cap-and-trade tax on energy; and a major federalization of education with universal access to college as the goal.
Amazing. As an explanation of our current economic difficulties, this is total fantasy. As a cure for rapidly growing joblessness, a massive destruction of wealth, a deepening worldwide recession, this is perhaps the greatest non sequitur ever foisted upon the American people.
At the very center of our economic near-depression is a credit bubble, a housing collapse and a systemic failure of the entire banking system. One can come up with a host of causes: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pushed by Washington (and greed) into improvident loans, corrupted bond-ratings agencies, insufficient regulation of new and exotic debt instruments, the easy money policy of Alan Greenspan’s Fed, irresponsible bankers pushing (and then unloading in packaged loan instruments) highly dubious mortgages, greedy house-flippers, deceitful homebuyers.
The list is long. But the list of causes of the collapse of the financial system does not include the absence of universal health care, let alone of computerized medical records. Nor the absence of an industry-killing cap-and-trade carbon levy. Nor the lack of college graduates. Indeed, one could perversely make the case that, if anything, the proliferation of overeducated, Gucci-wearing, smart-ass MBAs inventing ever more sophisticated and opaque mathematical models and debt instruments helped get us into this credit catastrophe in the first place.
And yet with our financial house on fire, Obama makes clear both in his speech and his budget that the essence of his presidency will be the transformation of health care, education and energy. Four months after winning the election, six weeks after his swearing in, Obama has yet to unveil a plan to deal with the banking crisis. What’s going on?
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” said Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. “This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before.”
Things. Now we know what they are. The markets’ recent precipitous decline is a reaction not just to the absence of any plausible bank rescue plan, but also to the suspicion that Obama sees the continuing financial crisis as usefully creating the psychological conditions—the sense of crisis bordering on fear-itself panic—for enacting his “Big Bang” agenda to federalize and/or socialize health care, education and energy, the commanding heights of post-industrial society.
Clever politics, but intellectually dishonest to the core. Health, education and energy—worthy and weighty as they may be—are not the cause of our financial collapse. And they are not the cure. The fraudulent claim that they are both cause and cure is the rhetorical device by which an ambitious president intends to enact the most radical agenda of social transformation seen in our lifetime.
Charles Krauthammer is a columnist for the Washington Post. His e-mail address is letters@charleskrauthammer.com.
Mar 11, 2009 at 11:40 a.m.
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I do not appreciate having to pay for someone else's debt without my say so. I give to all kinds of charity so I feel I've done my part. people bought these houses knowing full well they couldn't pay for them. I on the other hand, have always lived with in my means and now I'm being punished for it???? How does that make sense?? Give up the victim mentality and pay for your own debt. Grow up and make grown up decisions and don't expect others to cover your butt!! What is this saying to our children, live however you want and don't take responsiblity for your own actions, someone will cover for you!
Mar 8, 2009 at 4:03 p.m.
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RetiredAirForce~ Exactly. It's called accountability for one's self. Something that is very lacking in our society. It's become acceptable to pass the buck and have victim mentality. Our generations have slowly been taught this crap and it's now become normal. Infact, it's the reason this country is so messed up. Everyone blaming each other as opposed to taking on responsibility and doing something about it. This includes or govt. as well. The people in office learned the same lies as well.
Mar 7, 2009 at 8:04 p.m.
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"There was a billboard in Janesville until LAST YEAR that read"
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There are billboards everyday for many things. Who's responsibility is it before a purchase is made, the person making the purchase or the person writing the sale? Deals happen everyday in this country from car lots to Home Depot. Nobody forced anyone to purchase a home, those people decided to do it.
Mar 7, 2009 at 4:12 p.m.
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916WI,
you are so right! I have never heard of an adjustable rate going down, have you? If you were stupid enough to fall prey to these tactics then I still don't care to cary your water.
Mar 7, 2009 at 3:22 p.m.
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Victims???? Rigggggghhhhhtttt!! What about the term "Adjustable Rate Mortgage" is so deceiving? The rate can adjust--surprise, surprise! You will find that majority of us who bought houses within the last 5 years were approved for mortgages well beyond what we could actually afford. With the smallest amount of research and a little bit of time spent working up a budget, these people who fell prey to the "evil lenders" could have easily avoided the situations they are now finding themselves in. They signed on the dotted line. Whether the reasons for it were greed or stupidity, taxpayers shouldn't be on the hook for bailing them out.
By implementing a plan like this, Obama is artificially inflating the prices within the housing market. They should be allowed to bottom out. Then maybe responsible people who have been renting and saving throughout this mess would have a shot at the American dream...Those that let greed and ignorance conrtol their decision making, can rent for a couple of years, regroup and learn from there mistakes and make a go at it at a later date......
Mar 7, 2009 at 1 p.m.
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Great summation janesvillean. My more simplistic summation is that Obama is trying to be proactive, instead of reactive, to the continuing decline in the economy that started at the end of 2007.
Mar 7, 2009 at 12:46 p.m.
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I love the way everyone is making the homeowners the scapegoats. There was a billboard in Janesville until LAST YEAR that read "Fact: The average home appreciates 10% in value every year. Call your realtor today!" Most homeowners complete 2-3 mortgages in their entire lifetime. Most mortgage brokers complete 2-3 mortgages a *day*. Which one knew more about the jumbo option ARM with a balloon payment? The people buying homes were told over and over again that they had to buy now before prices went up, and that before their mortgage payments went up they could sell at a profit or refinance. They were lied to. They are victims.
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The mortgage program is designed to reduce the country's debt overhang without ruining everyone. Instead of lose-lose with a wave of foreclosures which cause real estate values to plummet even further, or unsustainable mortgages eating up most of the nation's families' spending power preventing them from buying stuff and prolonging the recession, they are put into workable plans that the banks and the homeowners can survive on using long in place standards. The bonuses are there to encourage both sides to take the deal, but the government also takes an interest in the mortgage upside, so that the taxpayer monies will be REIMBURSED if the house does appreciate.
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In short the mortgage plan is being misrepresented and the bankers and mortgage security traders and everyone else who actually made money on the housing bubble is very anxious to have the government do their dirty work and make the homeowners eat as much of the losses as possible.
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This is propaganda. The homeowners are the victims.
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If a swindler came to town and screwed a hundred little old ladies out of their savings, would you call the little old ladies greedy and let the swindler go to the next town? Or would you put the swindler in jail?
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Looks like some of you would side with the con man.
Mar 7, 2009 at 12:36 p.m.
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farmer--there is no bias on anything I posted--these are the facts regarding his mortgage plan. Obviously you're connected to the internet. There is a search engine called "Google". On the home page, type in "Obama's mortgage bailout plan" and read some articles to form your own opinion of it's content. Supporters of this president need to stop following so blindly and take some time to really find out what direction he is taking our country in.
Darius--Thanks! I have my moments:)
Mar 7, 2009 at 11:53 a.m.
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916WI~ Outstanding post! You couldn't have said it better! Rockofarmer, to answer your question.... how about getting the people who make up this country the proper education for starters?? The mass media that's become our society's conscience has really done a number on people. Alot of people who like to complain, yet, when it comes to action, they stick their head in the sand like the ostrich trying to hide from the lion!
Mar 7, 2009 at 11:39 a.m.
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916wi- Of course you don't understand the morgage bailout proposal yet. Fox news and/or Rush haven't told you how to be against it yet. Your right we should do nothing. What is your proposal, besides saying no all the time?
Mar 7, 2009 at 11:26 a.m.
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Everything Obama proposes goes against what made this country great. Personal responsibility, drive and ambition are not rewarded by looking at his proposals. I'm still trying to understand his mortgage bailout proposal. Not only are the taxpayers supposed to subsidize the reduction in mortgage principal that these greedy and/or ignorant people got into when they financed a home they could never actually afford. Taxpayers are also supposed to offer these "stupid" homeowners $1000 incentives when they actually make their mortgage payments on time. I seriously cannot believe that we are being forced to blantently reward ignorance and greed......
Mar 7, 2009 at 9:55 a.m.
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"I guess I am stupid huh..."
Couldn't have said it better.
Mar 7, 2009 at 9:35 a.m.
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lovetoscrap - excellent !
Mar 7, 2009 at 3:27 a.m.
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Well, I'm sure he will have a good response...once someone inputs the info into his teleprompter!
Mar 7, 2009 at 2:14 a.m.
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An interesting tid bit to consider in the stock market.
The Great depression saw the market fall about 90% from the crash in 1929 to the "bottom" in 1932. It was a 996 day "bear" market. In this current bear market we have sold off about 56% from the dow's peak around 14,000 in Oct 2007 to today. If you take that same time frame from where we we were in Oct 2007 to where we are now (down the 56% in the dow and S&P), and compare it to the 1929 bear market, we are actually down MORE in today's market AT THIS POINT then we were in the 29 crash (where it was down about 48% over the same time period)!
Mar 6, 2009 at 7:59 p.m.
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At the root cause of the problem are Obamas constituants,they are the ones who run up huge credit card debt, bought houses they could not afford; so why are we supprised to see their candidate doing what they want him to do, they do not care that the doww is plumiting they want every one to be equal.
Mar 6, 2009 at 7:26 p.m.
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...
Mar 6, 2009 at 7:24 p.m.
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Enough said?
Hardly. How about that 6,000 point drop from last May through last October -- 3,000 of which was in a matter of *two* *weeks* in September?
How about lowering taxes and asking for those cuts to be permanent WHILE nearly doubling spending? Recall we had a budget surplus only eight years ago....
Mar 6, 2009 at 5:49 p.m.
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Dow down 3000 pts since he was elected. Enough said.
Mar 6, 2009 at 4:35 p.m.
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Orrin Woodward for president!
Mar 6, 2009 at 3:48 p.m.
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I said it, now we are living it. We will be a socialist, broken country in under a year. Throw some more of our hard earned money away Obama, how do you Dems like him now. Are you feeling rescued. I certainly am not but, all the wage freezes, and job loss that I argued on this forum are definately comming true. I guess I am stupid huh, where are all the Obama supports rally cries now.
Mar 6, 2009 at 1:49 p.m.
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Only 1416 days? Can we really afford this? At the present rate of spending and debt, we will "only" owe 14 Trillion dollars, which our great-grandchildren will be stuck with. We cannot afford to continue to spend borrowed money to pay off a debt caused by spending borrowed money, Why is that so hard to understand?
Mar 6, 2009 at 11:25 a.m.
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He continues to campaign and blame (except the Democrats controlling Congress for the last two years), neither of which will help us get out of this mess. He is delusional about his big tax and spend policies 'creating' jobs. Government doesn't create jobs - the private sector does and he is doing everything possible to discourage investment in small business. When will the Democrats learn? You think it's bad now . . . just wait. This is what the majority of the country wanted. Well, you got it! The good news - only 1,416 days until he is out of office!
Mar 6, 2009 at 10:33 a.m.
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I don't think much of a man (Obama) who takes more than 4 months to choose a dog and then turns around and tells us we must spend uber amounts of money on bills we are not allowed to read and we must pass them in less than 24 hours with very little to no deliberation on the part of our Congressional and Senatorial elected officials.
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