Obama's Newest Worst Idea Ever--Fannie II
February 2009 brought us Barack Obama's "stimulus" plan--$800 billion worth of progressive agenda-packed deficit spending that produced zero economic improvement and increased the national debt.
One year later, President Obama offered the American people a $3.8 trillion 2011 budget that increased the national debt by another $1.3 trillion.
March 2010 saw Obamacare become law. The measure, pitched as a job-creating economic stimulus, was but a federal power-grab for a sixth of the U.S. economy, a power-grab which will degrade medical care, increase industry-strangling regulation, and balloon the national debt.
Then in February 2011, an arrogant, debt-ignoring Obama tried but failed to sell Congress and the people an insane $3.7 trillion budget which would have exploded the national debt by another $1.65 trillion.
All throughout, Mr. Obama has cast his fiscal shenanigans in a green tint by issuing nonstop calls for increased taxpayer subsidization of manufacturing of the type engaged in by a now-bankrupt Obama favorite, solar technology producer Solyndra.
The Wall Street Journal nicely encapsulates The One's newest fiscal absurdity. Obama wants to see "Congress create a 'bank' that could borrow huge sums with only a small federal outlay and would be independent of any political interference." The bank would allegedly "stimulate" the economy by funding public works projects and jobs that would otherwise go unfunded. The WSJ points out that the tactic would result in unions and construction companies benefiting from the same taxpayer largesse--a recipe for another subprime-like economic meltdown. The Journal also observes that an infrastructure bank would end up functioning just as characterized by Connecticut Democrat Rosa DeLauro in 2008, as a "public private partnership like Fannie Mae."
Surely it is only that we unenlightened masses are too, well, unenlightened to appreciate that since Fannie functioned so brilliantly in the private sector, we must put a public-sector Fannie to work right away. This will clearly, yet the clarity escapes us, "stimulate" the economy--or something like that, there, then...
Yet chances are good that the DeLauro-Obama union-construction marriage will present America with a replay of the ACORN-Obama Fannie-Freddie-banking debacle that killed the U.S. economy. But in this new murder, the American people would get a bonus. Obama has given us a heads-up, so we'll d know exactly what to look for as the latest crony-capitalist nightmare unfolds right before our eyes--and in pursuit of our wallets.
A writer, physicist, former high tech executive, and Cajun, Chuck Rogér invites you to sign up to receive his "Clear Thinking" blog posts by email at http://www.chuckroger.com/. Contact Chuck at swampcactus@chuckroger.com.