February 18, 2010

Planning to Fail

By Pedro Primavera

The economy seems to have settled in somewhat from the disaster of 2008. Every indication shows that the economy is poised for a rebound -- provided the right trigger is in place.

In the past, the trigger that has always got the economy back on track has been tax cuts, by Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and John Kennedy -- presidents from both sides of the aisle. And just when the economy is primed for that trigger, President Obama is going in the exact opposite direction. It is as if he is sabotaging the efforts of the American people.

It would be one thing if Obama were just plain incompetent, like Jimmy Carter, but the evidence says otherwise. In the same week he lectures the American people and (presumably) the American Congress, he signs into effect a $1.9-trillion increase in the national debt. This is at the same time when the budget deficit is already at crisis proportions according to World Bank standards. In effect, Obama is using the credit card -- even our kids' credit card -- just to pay the minimum balances on the other credit cards.

If Obama is not incompetent, then surely somebody is trying to ruin the economy while Obama is unaware, as former Virginia Governor Wilder laments. However, somebody needs to explain plausible deniability to Obama. It means having underlings doing things while you were unaware. Sometimes it is true, sometimes a lie. But no, Obama does the lying by himself. And then there is his signature on all the bills.

Maybe there is something wrong with the economic models professed by most Democrats. This much is true. Keynesianism as a faulty economic system somehow lives on. For instance, Keynes asserted government is flexible and business is not. Evidence in the last fifty years shows that government is a living and breathing entity that seemingly must either grow larger or die. It should be no wonder that the best years of the post-WWII era were the Reagan years, as he openly declared war on big government. Keynes also said that full employment is gained through fiscal policy served up by -- you guessed it -- big government.

The only problem with Obama as a Keynesian is that he never professed to be one. His mentors at an early age were Marxists, he claimed to hang around Marxists in college, and he has surrounded himself with czars who at best are laughable kooks of the highest order (otherwise known as academics) who have espoused many Marxist ideals.

Obama did not lie when he said just before the election that his election could bring fundamental change within government and society. The only problem is that nothing he is trying is new. It is all old and demonstrably failed attempts at a power-struggle. It lives only in the hallowed but harebrained halls of academia and among the socially bitter.

If anything, Obama needs to be called to task over his economic policies. Why is he not supporting a tax cut that could instantly call out the American consumer and spur business into action? Why is he not supporting business that could provide millions of jobs? However, the American media seems to fawn over the enlightened dictator, as they did with Fidel Castro and others. Instead of calling Obama to task over failed policies, they act as his propaganda machine. They want to use their influence to support some misguided higher ideal of humanity seemingly derived from J.D. Salinger's A Catcher in the Rye.

It is becoming fairly obvious now to the casual observer: Obama is destroying the infrastructure of this nation purposefully. The hard part is making it to 2012 before the damage is done.