The politics of fear rightly denounced by Barack Obama on the campaign trail have found a familiar home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Obama and the Democrats rushed the $787 billion “stimulus” bill through Congress, warning that delay would cause catastrophe. Of course that is absolute nonsense: they wanted the thousand-page bill passed quickly so nobody would have a chance to read it, just like the horrible Patriot Act.
Obama’s gun-grabbing chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said in November, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” It is not hard to imagine nearly every member of our incredibly corrupt Congress salivating over these words. They knew exactly what was coming and prepared to gorge themselves at the public trough. The only thing this bill will stimulate is the size and power of the federal government and the coffers of politically connected businesses.
Be prepared for more and bigger stimulus bills in the future as this one fails and politicians complain that it wasn’t enough money. That is always the excuse when government programs fail – it is not that they were bad ideas in the first place, it’s simply a matter of not enough money being spent!
Don’t get me wrong, the Republicans are just as bad as the Democrats. After an eight-year spending orgy with Bush are we supposed to actually believe the Republicans have suddenly embraced limited government principles and fiscal responsibility? They are just playing politics and would be pushing their own stimulus now had McCain won.
So what is the government’s brilliant solution to rescue our debt-ridden economy? Why, more debt – nearly $1 trillion more, the majority of which won’t be spent until 2010, coinciding nicely with midterm elections. That’s right – after fueling the largest asset bubble in history with easy credit, rapid expansion of the money supply, subsidized home ownership, guarantees of various financial assets and the complicity of the big banks, the government will fix the crisis with more such policies in addition to a fresh trillion in new spending and government programs.
For what it’s worth, here is my solution to our economic problems: End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saving hundreds of billions every year. End the empire and bring all the troops home from everywhere; we spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined. End the Federal Reserve System and manipulation of interest rates – the progenitor of these severe boom/bust cycles. End the welfare state that is entirely unsustainable and undermines personal responsibility and economic freedom, especially corporate welfare.
These ideas would never be taken seriously in Washington where the political classes leech off productive Americans and destroy what liberty we have left.