“It’s worse [Obama's Administration] than I could have imagined possible.”–UPDATED
February 19, 2009 / 9:33 am • By Dr. Melissa ClouthierA blogger friend and I were talking yesterday and she lamented the Obama administration’s long-lasting affects and it was only one month into his presidency: the drive to nationalize banks, the class-warfare, the hostility toward achievement, the secretiveness, the cult of personality, the talk of inclusion then the actions of exclusion, etc.
The current push by the administration is to pass Employee Free Choice Act (more double-speak, this law is about everything besides free choice) that would eliminate secret ballots–so employees could be intimidated into voting for a union. At first blush, this seems like no big deal. Unions have been known to be heavy handed but so what. So what? So, this legislation would go to the heart of the economy where it is still humming: the South. Businesses in the sunshine belt, where unions and taxation are less likely, thrive precisely because there is no collective bargaining to coerce the companies into bad business practices. Even further, the employees in these places live as well or better because the states have less personal income tax (Texas has none, for example) and can make up in cost-of-living savings anything a union might be able to gain.
But this legislation isn’t about what’s good for the individual, business, community or state. This is about evening the playing field. That is, states with egregious taxation suddenly retain businesses because the business environment everywhere in the United States is made universally punitive. Unions represent more workers because workers are coerced into unionizing. As it is, the unions are aggressive and seem to not comprehend that many workers don’t want unionization.
That workers resist unions shouldn’t be difficult to understand, really. Look at what the UAW is up to in Michigan. Once again, even in the face of GM, Chrysler and Ford failing, they concede nothing. This will mean, of course, that business leaves Michigan and jobs are lost. Sure the few jobs that remain will be flush, but the vast majority of workers won’t have a job. Flint is a ghost town for precisely this reason. Workers in the South have seen the “benevolence” of the unions (many are transplants after all) and want no part of it.
Taking away secret ballots would create a hostile work environment for those who resist the union. What if the union takes hold and you, the worker, fought against it? Yeah, life will be hard. {More on the outrage that is Card Checks here.]
And this is just the beginning of Barack Obama’s drive to reshape the American landscape into one of “fairness”, i.e. mediocrity. Fairness means those who achieve and thrive are penalized and those who, say, can’t afford a house, buy over their ability to pay, and default are rewarded–with the money of those who live within their means.
There are plenty of Americans who have lived within their means over the last few years even with banks sending outrageous numbers of credit cards with “O% Financing!” and “No Interest For A Year!”, etc. And there were people who did not. The banks gave money to people who shouldn’t have been given money. The people who could not handle the money not surprisingly spent it all without considering tomorrow. Then the banks saw the impending balance sheet woes and lobbied Congress to make filing bankruptcy more difficult. So people were forced to keep paying enormous amounts of interest, enslaving the debtor for years and years. And then, when the person got overburdened, he walked away from his house–his largest liability. And then, the banks asked for a bailout for all their stupid lending decisions.
Now, Barack Obama (and President Bush started this before him), bailed out banks that gave money irresponsibly. But then again, that was because they were coerced by Congress to give money to people who couldn’t afford to pay. See what happens with the government tries to make things “fair”?
All these attempts to “level the playing field” and promote “fairness” sound great. What it means is that the people who make bad decisions control those who live responsibly. And really, that’s the ultimate goal.
While I find Europe’s soft socialistic society pathetic, American Democrats look at the various countries with envy. Barack Obama’s language in both Germany and France revealed his contempt for America and Americans. He saw their world and wanted to transport that society to America.
Far from being the agent of hope and change, Barack Obama represents hate and contempt. He fundamentally despises the individualistic American impulse. He scorns the notion of hard work and achievement. He believes America is a bad place that needs to be changed into something good. Something, say, like Europe.
He is succeeding in fulfilling his dream. It’s going to be a nightmare for America.
P.S. Ultimately, the problem is that to far too many Americans, Barack Obama’s words and actions appeal to them. The same people who couldn’t see to the end of their own misfortune, can’t see how Barack Obama is promising them “easy credit”, too. There ain’t no free lunch–this bill will be paid.
UPDATED:
My co-blogger John Hawkins of Right Wing News, interviewed economist Walter Williams about his latest book. This is what Williams says about rich people verses the government:
…There is so much demagoguery against the rich and in that column I was asking the reader: Bill Gates, the richest person on the face of the earth — what can Bill Gates make you do? That is, during the 70s and 80s, the era of busing, could he have made you send your kid to a school that you did not want him to go to? Can Bill Gates deny you the right to dig holes on your property or put up a little shed on your property? He cannot do any of those things, but a lowly town clerk can…destroy your life just by denying you a permit to add an addition to your house. Bill Gates can’t stop you from doing that. I think that politicians and those that want to control our lives get us to focus away from the power that government has over our lives and cast our attention to rich people.
It’s working.
Cross-posted at RightWingNews
