Obama's Ultimate Agenda

[stephanie]

interesting read.

Obama's Ultimate Agenda
by Charles Krauthammer

WASHINGTON -- Five minutes of explanation to James Madison, and he'll have a pretty good idea what a motorcar is (basically a steamboat on wheels; the internal combustion engine might take a few minutes more). Then try to explain to Madison how the Constitution he fathered allows the president to unilaterally guarantee the repair or replacement of every component of millions of such contraptions sold in the several states, and you will leave him slack-jawed.

In fact, we are now so deep into government intervention that constitutional objections are summarily swept aside. The last Treasury secretary brought the nine largest banks into his office and informed them that henceforth he was their partner. His successor is seeking the power to seize any financial institution at his own discretion.

Despite these astonishments, I remain more amused than alarmed. First, the notion of presidential car warranties strikes me as simply too bizarre, too comical, to mark the beginning of Yankee Peronism.

Second, there is every political incentive to make these interventions in the banks and autos temporary and circumscribed. For President Obama, autos and banks are sideshows. Enormous sideshows, to be sure, but had the financial meltdown and the looming auto bankruptcies not been handed to him, he would hardly have gone seeking to be the nation's car and credit czar.

Obama has far different ambitions. His goal is to rewrite the American social compact, to recast the relationship between government and citizen. He wants government to narrow the nation's income and anxiety gaps. Soak the rich for reasons of revenue and justice. Nationalize health care and federalize education to grant all citizens of all classes the freedom from anxiety about health care and college that the rich enjoy. And fund this vast new social safety net through the cash cow of a disguised carbon tax.

Obama is a leveler. He has come to narrow the divide between rich and poor. For him the ultimate social value is fairness. Imposing it upon the American social order is his mission.

Fairness through leveling is the essence of Obamaism. (Asked by Charlie Gibson during a campaign debate about his support for raising capital gains taxes -- even if they caused a net revenue (BEG ITAL)loss(END ITAL) to the government -- Obama stuck to the tax hike "for purposes of fairness.") The elements are highly progressive taxation, federalized health care and higher education, and revenue-producing energy controls. But first he must deal with the sideshows. They could sink the economy and poison his public support before he gets to enact his real agenda.


read whole article with comments..
http://townhall.com/columnists/Charl...=true#comments

[Classact]

To see exactly where Obama is going you only need to visit Center for American Progress, Sierra Club and George Sorrus web sites... Charles has his shit together more than most in DC though.

[theHawk]

Yea, Obama believes in leveling they playing field for everyone except him. Like his campaign promise to go with campaign reform and accept public funds. As soon as he realized he could outspend his oppenent he pulled a 180.

[April15]

Madison could also understand the uniqueness of the times and once he understood the severity of the problem most likely would concur that saving the union meant saving the economic engine that drives it.

[bullypulpit]

interesting read.

http://townhall.com/columnists/Charl...=true#comments

Interesting in that Krauthammer once again misses the mark.

Imagine Madison's astonishment at hearing the explanation of how the Constitution he fathered allows (it doesn't really) the president to unilaterally declare US citizens "enemy combatants" who could be stripped of all constitutional rights, held indefinitely without trial and subjected to torture...er, "harsh interrogation". But such was the constitutional authority claimed by the Bush administration.

[stephanie]

Madison could also understand the uniqueness of the times and once he understood the severity of the problem most likely would concur that saving the union meant saving the economic engine that drives it.

I see you didn't read the article..

[emmett]

I beg your pardon.....James madison would never have prescribed to the politics that led to the problems to begin with. Not applicable!

Currently his skeleton is sticking his finger down his throat and it has been there since 1992.

Democrats were the main cause of this financial crisis and now they are going to set themselves up as the fixers too! (Cough Cough Barney Frank)

Not single person alive the day the constitution became the law of the land would have agreed with what we just did...NO matter what the problem. That just is not true!

[emmett]

Interesting in that Krauthammer once again misses the mark.

Imagine Madison's astonishment at hearing the explanation of how the Constitution he fathered allows (it doesn't really) the president to unilaterally declare US citizens "enemy combatants" who could be stripped of all constitutional rights, held indefinitely without trial and subjected to torture...er, "harsh interrogation". But such was the constitutional authority claimed by the Bush administration.

What US citizen are you referring to?

Held without trial as an enemy combatant, tortured. Who are you referring to?

[April15]

I beg your pardon.....James madison would never have prescribed to the politics that led to the problems to begin with. Most correct but Bush and raygoon do not subscribe to the constitution. Not applicable!

Currently his skeleton is sticking his finger down his throat and it has been there since 1981.

Democrats were the main cause of this financial crisis and now they are going to set themselves up as the fixers too! (Cough Cough Barney Frank)

Not single person alive the day the constitution became the law of the land would have agreed with what we just did...NO matter what the problem. That just is not true!

I would say it is true, they were by all accounts very intelligent men.

[Jagger]

...explain to Madison how the Constitution he fathered allows the president to unilaterally guarantee the repair or replacement of every component of millions of such contraptions sold in the several states, and you will leave him slack-jawed.

James Madison, and all of the other Presidents during the early years of our republic, assumed powers not in the Constitution, in times of crisis.

[Jagger]

In fact, we are now so deep into government intervention that constitutional objections are summarily swept aside.

The founding fathers wanted the federal government to have the power to become deeply involved in business and commerce. That's why they gave it broad general power over the general welfare and commerce among the states.

[Jagger]

Under James Madison's interpretation of the Constitution, the U. S. Air Force is illegal.

[Jagger]

Democrats were the main cause of this financial crisis and now they are going to set themselves up as the fixers too! (Cough Cough Barney Frank)

Barney Frank didn't deregulate the financial services industry, dude.

[bullypulpit]

I beg your pardon.....James madison would never have prescribed to the politics that led to the problems to begin with. Not applicable!

Currently his skeleton is sticking his finger down his throat and it has been there since 1992.

Democrats were the main cause of this financial crisis and now they are going to set themselves up as the fixers too! (Cough Cough Barney Frank)

Not single person alive the day the constitution became the law of the land would have agreed with what we just did...NO matter what the problem. That just is not true!

Sorry emmett, but the primary architect of our current financial difficulties was Phil Gramm with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, which gutted the Glass-Steagal Act of 1933, thereby allowing investment banks, commercial banks and insurance companies to merge. The Glass-Steagal Act had prevented this for nearly 70 years, and just 10 short years after it was gutted, we have our current economic crisis, exacerbated by two wars and mountains of debt left behind by the previous administration.

The Democratic contribution was Bill "Horn-Dog" Clinton signing the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act into law.

Nitey-nite!

[Jagger]

Sorry emmett, but the primary architect of our current financial difficulties was Phil Gramm

Phil Gramm belongs in Gitmo.