Krauthammer - Obama's next act

Charles Krauthammer, in his column piece called Obama's Next Act, claims that almost everyone is underestimating Obama.  He says Obama has accomplished a huge part of his ideological goals.  He has

• "Irrevocably changed one-sixth of the economy" with ObamaCare and put the country inexorably on the road to national health care in a manner to bring about one of the most massive redistributions of wealth in U.S. history.
• The financial "reform", creating 243 new regulations, will provide government control of banks, "storefront check cashiers, city governments, small manufacturers, home buyers and credit bureaus," among many other economic activities.
• The Stimulus Bill was the largest spending bill ever and helped to lock in a requirement for further tax increases.
• The nationalization of student loans [gives the federal government control of who goes to college and which college they will go to --- in time.]
• The Medicare and Medicaid entitlements dominate future government budgets.  ObamaCare freezes out future reductions in programs, so there is no possibility for deficit reduction except to increase taxes massively, probably with "a European-style value-added tax.

Krauthammer says "the next burst of ideological energy -- massive regulation of the energy economy, federalizing higher education and 'comprehensive' immigration reform (i.e., amnesty) -- will require a second mandate, meaning reelection in 2012."  Krauthammer seems almost to expect Obama's reelection.

I am not as pessimistic as Krauthammer is, but he is right that Obama has accomplished a plunge deep into socialism.  The extraction process will be fraught with difficulties and dangers.  We are on the verge of losing the very concept of America as the Land of the Free, the Home of the Brave and replacing that transitionally with America, the Land of the Moocher, the Home of the Irresponsible, before it becomes permanently, America, the Land of the Slave, the Impoverished without homes.  To prevent this, we must overturn each and every socialist accomplishment of Obama listed above.  There is no other route to the salvation of the equal, sovereign rights of the individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  We must come to control the House, the Senate with a super-majority, and the presidency by the 2012 election.  The consequence of not doing so is death.  Or slavery, if you think there is a difference.

Senate Financial Regulation Bill Snoops on You

The Senate voted 59-39 on Thursday to pass a financial regulation bill, which was claimed to be aimed at Wall Street. The bill now goes to a conference committee in the House of Representatives, where differences between the House and Senate versions will be ironed out.

The bill creates the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection and empowers it to “gather information and activities of persons operating in consumer financial markets,” including the names and addresses of account holders, ATM and other transaction records, and the amount of money kept in each customer’s account. Senator Shelby has warned Americans that the purpose of this is for Big Brother to watch over us to try to change our behavior and choices in using our money.  It appears that the Democrats' viewpoint is that Americans are incompetent to choose their own foods and incompetent to spend their own money.  Just as they would proscribe our eating sugar, saturated fats, and fast foods generally, they want to be in a position to limit any spending we may do that they do not like.

No doubt, they are also eager to have this information so they will have a better handle on who is operating in the black market or has largely cash income which is not being reported on income taxes.  By tracking everything someone is spending their money on which goes through their bank accounts, the feds can then figure out which likely spending is not being revealed in those transactions.  This will allow them to discover the likely candidates living in a substantially cash economy with unreported income.  For instance, suppose someone is buying all of their groceries with undeclared cash, because they are neither withdrawing enough money from the ATM for cash purchases of their groceries nor using a credit card or debit card to do so.

Big Brother is growing constantly more watchful.