Here's To The Late Great American Economy

There seems to be a slowly-building movement in Congress to stop the Obamanomics juggernaut it its tracks. Except for a few smiley face RINOs, Republicans have ranged from total opposition to the Obama money-printing/money-burning plans to reasoned disagreement and major modification. As of this morning the cracks within the Democratic wall continue to spread. At long last, there's hope that there will be a lot less change.

TARP: The Wall Street Journal assessed the looming government debt for TARP, the earliest of the massive government programs, to be as much as $23.7 trillion. Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky, charged with supervising the $700 billion financial sector bailout said the Treasury Department isn't disclosing enough information about how taxpayer money is being spent." Well, there's news. Barofsky said that all programs specifically designed to "save corporations, prop up banks and insurance companies, provide make-work jobs for government employees, and otherwise 'stimulate' the economy, including moneys simply sitting unused," would reach that near $24 trillion level.

Although the TARP provisions can be revised downward to reduce the total indebtedness, the fact is that the main damage has already been done, and the Obama administration is claiming that it isn't enough. The stimulus that doesn't stimulate needs to be made bigger, say the Obamacrats. The money-printers in the White House have begun to sound like high school cheerleaders--do it again, do it again, harder, harder. The quarterback-sneak play we just used three times cost us a negative 85 yards, so let's do it again, only this time with greater feeling!

Barofsky went on to say "It is a scheme to shift toxic assets and that there are 'fundamental vulnerabilities' relating to conflicts of interest and collusion, transparency, performance measures and anti-money laundering." The Treasury Department has essentially been silent about the criticisms, and hasn't responded directly to inquiries from the Journal, The Financial Times and CBS News, except to deny that there is any disagreement that doesn't revolve around certain financial accounting procedures.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Cap and trade and various schemes to play God and regulate the weather would cost American taxpayers dearly. It may cost some politicians dearly as well. Despite a squeak-through in the House, the Senate has not rolled over and played dead for the administration. Many House Democrats along with certain turncoat Republicans have already been targeted by concerned organizations for public humiliation in the media and defeat at the polls. The groups are calling the various bills and proposals out for what they really are. The National Republican Congressional Committee has targeted several freshman Democrats for supporting "a giant energy tax." Roll Call calls climate change the "ticking political time bomb on the Senate's agenda this fall, and Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) has the timer set to go off in late September." The globaloney climate change enthusiasts are hoping the health care debate will continue to cover up the deep divisions within the Democratic Party over how to approach global warming. To add to their woes, there seems to be no way to appeal to Republicans short of abandoning the whole project entirely. How much will these programs cost us in trillions of dollars? Unknown as yet, but Al Gore and the cap and trade snake-oil salesmen are counting on it costing the taxpayers almost as much as the profit they will make from their gargantuan scam. Speaking of which, there is always:

HEALTH CARE: No matter how sick the economy, the Obamacrats insist that each of us is even sicker. Although the Republic and its citizens have survived since 1789 without a complete government takeover of all things medical, the administration has decided that it's a crisis (yeah, one of those) which has become so horrific that it must be resolved immediately, forthwith, without delay, and before the Congressional August recess. Damn the torpedoes (and the economy and personal choice), full speed ahead! The administration has determined the actual cost of its various plans to be, well, who the hell knows? But it will be a lot, trust us. Still, in the long run, it will all be worth it since we will have universal access to doctors and hospitals--just like Cuba.

Health care is an issue which must be addressed, as demonstrated by the excellent and thorough examination being conducted here at Commentarama by my associate Andrew Price. But it is not a crisis which requires hocking our economic future or our physical well-being for the sake of rushing to judgment simply to satisfy a President's monumental ego. There is no simple solution, and the current proposals are disastrous. How carefully has the administration thought this out? See above ($23.7 trillion, with negligible results).

HOW FARES THE REPUBLIC? The public has been a bit under the weather lately (pun intended), but it seems to be coming out of its coma. There are major rumblings of dissatisfaction with both the administration and Congress popping up all over. TARP revision will have to wait, but it is unlikely that the public will countenance even the suggestion of another bailout package despite Obama's insistence that it should. Polls continue to show downward trends in the numbers of people who support the climate change junk science and the cap and trade scheme. Dissatisfaction is moving quickly upwards with Congressional and Presidential performance. A recent Quinnipiac poll shows Mitt Romney (a potential Republican candidate) in a virtual tie with Barack Obama (an incumbent President) for the nation's highest office. That tends to indicate that Obama's popularity is more apparent than real.

As for health care, Obama has stated as recently as Tuesday morning that there is good progress for passing a bill before his stated deadline of the August recess. But that doesn't seem to fit the facts. His first and biggest problem is his "no tax increase for those earning under $250,000" pledge. Ignoring the complete disingenuousness of that pledge, the "eat the rich" philosophy is wearing thin with the public very quickly. Most recognize that "the rich" includes almost every small business owner who is struggling to make ends meet and keep his or her business from going under. Anybody remember "read my lips--no new taxes?" It is becoming increasingly close to impossible for Obama to hide the immense taxes he is imposing without actually calling them taxes. And on the issue of health care, nobody with an IQ above room temperature believes that the current administration/Congressional proposals can be accomplished without substantial increases in taxes. Even Obama's own top people have been called in, not to discuss how to avoid new and crippling taxes, but how to raise them.

POLITICAL OUTLOOK FOR HEALTH CARE: Two final notes on health care proposals in their present form. First, Roll Call reports that Democrats in the Senate have "determined that the political landscape of health care reform, and their options for bringing up a comprehensive bill [before the August recess] appear to be narrowing with the gradual realization no matter what they do, they're probably going to need 60 votes to pass it." Even with the seating of the joker Democrat Al Franken in the Senate, the number of hostile Democrats combined with even more hostile Republicans makes that less likely by the hour." As AP reports "Backup reconciliation plans could become mired in the same 60 vote problem they currently face on cap and trade, as liberals, centrists and a handful of Republicans battle it out over the direction of a final Senate bill.

Second, the Washington Post reports while the President's "overall rating remains high at 59%, since April, approval of Obama's handling of health care has dropped from 57% to 49%, with disapproval rising from 29% to 44%." The Post goes on to say that the administration is trying a tack which may backfire: "The White House has launched a new phase of its strategy designed to dramatically increase public pressure on Congress: all Obama, all the time." And finally, even the Obama-obsessed New York Times reports on its front page that the nation's governors "Democrats as well as Republicans, voiced deep concern Sunday about the shape of the health care bill emerging from Congress, fearing that the federal government is about to hand them expensive new Medicaid obligations without providing the money to pay for them. There was bipartisan animosity voiced against the Obama administration's plan."

It's time for Congress to slow down, take a deep breath, think before acting, and read before passing chaotic legislation. And it's time for Congress to start asking the big question that the public is increasingly asking: "What's the big hurry?"