San Francisco Examiner  circulation | classifieds | autos | real estate | jobs | advertise
   
Monster
Welcome,   My Account |  Log out
Welcome, Guest  Sign In |  Register
Friday, March 19, 2010 | Last Update 9:52 PDT
View today's E-Dition

click for forecast
Home News Politics Local Opinion Economy Sports Lifestyle Classifieds Jobs Autos Home Listings
Nation World Under the Dome Ken Garcia Beltway Confidential Weather Mobile Site Contact
Under the Dome California Nation World
Under the Dome California Beltway Confidential White House Congress Michael Barone Byron York
Under the Dome Ken Garcia Melissa Griffin People Real Estate Events Calendar
Editorials Nate Beeler's Toons Blogs Columnists Michael Barone Byron York
Economy Page Real Estate Technology
NFL NBA NHL MLB Soccer Colleges Golf
Movies Television Health Events Calendar

Opinion
[Print]  [Email]         Share    

Obama’s budget will make us the most socialist country in the world

By: Karen Hart
Special to The Examiner
April 21, 2009

In the famous tale “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” Jabez Stone sold his soul to the devil to enjoy seven years of prosperity. He was even able to bargain for three more years before the “mortgage fell due,” but regardless the mortgage came due and the devil was there to collect.

America has sold its soul for unsustainable entitlements, and the price could very well be our capitalistic society as we move closer and closer to socialism.

Socialism, as Winston Churchill defined it, is a philosophy of failure. Yet when President Barack Obama fired the CEO of GM, the American public barely batted an eye. As financial markets have teetered on the brink of going under, the U.S. government has stepped in, taken ownership, arbitrarily decided what companies will fail and pumped and inflated others with fat TARP and bailout funds, but at a devil of a cost.

What is truly disturbing is the American people would gladly hand over their hard-won freedoms for simple short-term financial security. In fact, a March 2009 Gallup Poll found that while “64 percent of Republicans say they place more trust in businesses to solve the nation’s economic problems, 72 percent of Democrats say they trust the government more, underscoring the enormous philosophical divide in the way Republicans and Democrats view the government’s role.”

Metrics do not lie and metrically speaking, we’re there. Newsweek’s Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas, grandson of Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas, noted, “A decade ago, U.S. government spending was 34.3 percent of GDP compared with 48.2 percent in the euro zone — a roughly 14-point gap, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

In 2010, U.S. spending is expected to be 39.9 percent of GDP, compared with 47.1 percent in the euro zone — a gap of less than 8 points. As entitlement spending rises over the next decade, we will become even more French.”

The once-great nation is being bamboozled. If there is one thing that Americans learned from the Bush administration, it’s that we cannot spend our way to prosperity. Yet under Obama’s proposed $3.6 trillion, five-year budget, taxes are going to skyrocket across the taxpaying spectrum to pay for the market’s financial failures that are amounting to trillions of taxpayer dollars; to compensate for the Obama administration’s overreaching and untenable universal health care; and the planned government takeover of student loans.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that Obama’s plan would “generate unsustainable deficits averaging almost $1 trillion a year for the next decade.”

And U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee and one-time Obama pick for Commerce Secretary, recently made a harrowing point on NPR that under such a budget, it would dramatically expand government in the out years and take our debt up to about 80 percent of our Gross National Product. Gregg further pointed out that a country cannot even become a member of the European Union if its debt is 60 percent of its GNP, meaning America would not even be good enough to be a socialist country.

Unfortunately, voters are passively observing as the federal government continues, at accelerated speeds, to whittle away our civil liberties and eventually our democracy.

Alexis de Tocqueville warned, “Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”

America, under the prescribed course of Obama and the Democratic congressional majority, is being led into indentured servitude to big government and our oh-so-modern society is becoming a replica of the very government model our forefathers shed blood to defeat.

Selling freedom’s soul under the guise of a bailout may seem like a good way to rob Peter to pay Paul, but the people should not expect Daniel Webster to come to our nation’s defense when the devil comes calling for the mortgage.

Karen Hart worked for President Ronald Reagan during his post-White House years. She is a freelance speechwriter in Washington, D.C.
 



Topics

Barack Obama , Socialism , budget


Follow The Examiner

under the dome
$157K loan to LGBT Center debated

On Wednesday, the Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee will hold a second hearing to decide whether to loan the LGBT Center $157,500 to help with a mortgage. The...

—Joshua Sabatini

Newsom vs. Arnie: Round 2

It was another day of Mayor Gavin Newsom firing off at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for denying transit agencies money. Newsom sent out a statement Wednesday explaining his...

—Erin Sherbert

Newsom Tracker: Mayor to conduct meetings in City Hall

Mayor Gavin Newsom will be conducting meetings in City Hall....

Shadows can fall on parks from 555 Washington condo tower

The proposed 555 Washington condo tower near the Transamerica Pyramid will be allowed to cast shadows on surrounding parks, city officials ruled Thursday. The shadowing effect...

—John Upton

More Under the Dome posts...

beltway confidential
Projections from the House's 'deem to pass' roll call

The House voted this afternoon by a 222-203 margin to pass the “Slaughter solution” rule authorizing a single vote on the Senate health care bill which the House...

—Michael Barone

Sen. Conrad says health care process may never, ever end

Sen. Kent Conrad, speaking to Roll Call and Fox, says the Senate will likely be unable to pass unchanged the reconciliation bill the House passes, even if the House can pass...

As banks failed, bank regulators got bonuses, too

From the AP: WASHINGTON - Banks weren't the only ones giving big bonuses in the boom years before the worst financial crisis in generations. The government also was handing out...

—David Freddoso

Slaughter digs in on "deem and pass" for Senate bill

House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., is again suggesting the health care bill can be nullified if the Senate does not take up a second bill with fixes...

—Susan Ferrechio

More Beltway Confidential posts...


To view this site, you need to have Flash Player 8.0 or later installed. Click here to get the latest Flash player.


Most Popular Headlines
  1. Homeless couple accused of burglary spree using police cart
  2. Coast Guard still looking for swimmer off shore of Pacifica
  3. Changing rules to spur homebuying
  4. Bay Area housing market remains slow
  5. Scoop: Bullock’s marriage called a total sham
  6. Bus snags PG&E wire, knocks out power to Panhandle
  7. ABC revokes liquor license of store that had been owned by slain man
  8. Scoop: Model claims affair with Bullock’s hubby
  9. GPS may be used to monitor Muni
  10. Placard-abuse efforts paying off





ING | Bay to breakers
99 years, 99 reasons to register. What's yours? Pink Participant

 


 



 

Reader Comments

All comments on this page are subject to our Terms of Use and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Examiner or its staff. Comment box is limited to 200 words.
blog comments powered by Disqus

Sports

Dickey: Terrible time for a 49ers shakeup

Scot McCloughan’s apparent dismissal as general... Full story

Sports

Cal, Louisville shuffle lineups for tournament

Cal and Louisville are shuffling their starting lineups... Full story

Entertainment

Scoop: Bullock’s marriage called a total sham

More revelations are emerging about the... Full story

Olympic Coverage | RSS | Twitter | Facebook | Mobile | Contact Us | Rack Locations | Advertise | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy