Lessons from the Gipper

Barack Obama's adoration of the power of government is sure-fire confirmation of Ronald Reagan's quip. To wit, "Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it; If it keeps moving, regulate it; If it stops moving, subsidize it."

Under the Obama administration, we are being deluged with the manifestation of all three parts of the Reagan axiom. Taxes? Going up, thank you. Increased capital gains taxes, termination of Bush tax cuts, and the omnipresence of ObamaCare taxes. With regard to the latter, in September 2009, Obama adamantly denied that the mandatory nature of ObamaCare participation was a tax. However, in response to State law suits against the constitutionality of ObamaCare, his own Justice Department proffers the "government right to impose taxes" argument to defend the "non-tax tax".

Regulation? The about to be signed Financial Deform bill will only serve to make the extension of certain types of consumer credit impossibly difficult and expensive to the masses. This will create another crisis for which there will be the typical Obama response: regulate more, to the point of nationalization.

Subsidize? Here Obama reached a new and somewhat perverted low. He invited three jobless Americans to the White House as props for extending unemployment benefits. Wait a moment now, wasn't he going to put Americans back to work via the $800 Billion (before interest payments) Stimulus Bill? Seeing that the Stimulus Bill only stimulated a desire to spend more money, he now wants to pay extra for what he could not fix in the first place. (Think of buying a cordless vacuum cleaner and then having to buy a broom). The three jobless Americans are a testament to Obama's failure. My prediction is that he will want to extend unemployment benefits through, say, November 2012.

Obama is actually making Jimmy Carter not look so bad.