Obama and the manufactured crisis

I stated in an earlier blog that I wondered if Obama would get away with things George Bush couldn't. Or, didn't. Glen Beck made an excellent point of this on a recent show. He read several headlines in which he replaced Obama's name with Bush'. I'm doing this from memory, but they went something like this:

Bush administration takes control of census.

Bush orders millions for overseas abortion

Bush increases troop level in Afghanistan with no debate or timetable.

Bush budget triples debt.

You get the idea. There's no question he'd be crucified. In fact, it this out of control, non debate spending that got many republicans booted from office, and may have well cost McCain the election. It's astonishing to watch. Yet, many seem to be OK with this. Especially on the left. Why? Because it's Obama.

Bush' tax cuts were constantly railed on as "tax cuts for the rich". Yet, Obama is providing what can only be called welfare for banks, the auto industry, and mortgage companies. Again, this seems to be OK.

As a six year old would respond though . . . why?

One of the issues the left had with Bush is that he used terrorism to his advantage to pass the Patriot Act. Many felt that Bush was completely out of control violating portions of the Constitution that protect civil liberties and personal and property rights. That he used scare tactics so as to allow himself to declare war, kill innocents, torture, imprison, and spy and wiretap at his own discretion. All outside the boundaries of law and civil liberties. Of course, the conspiracy nuts claim Bush orchestrated the whole 911 event. All so he could declare war, go after oil, secure contracts for Haliburton, and spy on everyone.

Huh. But, I thought he was the dumbest President ever. Which one is it? More than that, though, what was his gain? It will be interesting to see if Obama reverses any of THOSE practices.

Anyway. Now we come to Obama and the economic "crisis". Now, I don't mean to minimalize the economic situation. However you think we got to where we are . . . we're here. I think the question is, though, how bad is it that we need to take such enormous steps, and so quickly, to try and fix it?

I'll admit. I'm a market guy. I think much of our mess is due to simply not letting market forces work they way they should naturally. When government subsidizes, regulates, and over taxes certain market sectors, natural market becomes unbalanced and problems occur. The auto industry is a good example. We cannot continue to pour money in to a failing business model. That makes no sense. Rail is another. If it cannot self sustain, if no one uses it, why bother?

So, what do we really need to do to turn the economy around? Well, there's a huge difference of opinion there. For people who like to remind us of the Clinton years, I would remind them that his policy also included tax cuts. That it wasn't just spending. Besides, republicans had control of Congress and nothing too extreme was likely to be allowed.

Remember Emmanuel's comment? "Never let a serious crisis go to waste"? Enter Cloward and Piven. If the left can be as moronic as to suggest Bush orchestrated the 911 attacks, then I'm here to say Obama, Emmanuel, and others, are using, hyping the economic situation for their own gain. For a very interesting read, go here.

More than interesting, it's scary. Particularly when you look at Obama's past and his associations and how things lead up to today.

The problem, too, is that people are buying into Obama's solution. How many times have we heard that Obama is going to "buy me that house" or car, or get that job?

This is a dangerous time we're in.