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January 22, 2009

"The Obama presidency: Here comes socialism" ~ Dick Morris

The Obama presidency: Here comes socialism

by Dick Morris

The Hill

2009-2010 will rank with 1913-14, 1933-36, 1964-65 and 1981-82 as years that will permanently change our government, politics and lives. Just as the stars were aligned for Wilson, Roosevelt, Johnson and Reagan, they are aligned for Obama. Simply put, we enter his administration as free-enterprise, market-dominated, laissez-faire America. We will shortly become like Germany, France, the United Kingdom, or Sweden -- a socialist democracy in which the government dominates the economy, determines private-sector priorities and offers a vastly expanded range of services to many more people at much higher taxes.

Obama will accomplish his agenda of "reform" under the rubric of "recovery." Using the electoral mandate bestowed on a Democratic Congress by restless voters and the economic power given his administration by terrified Americans, he will change our country fundamentally in the name of lifting the depression. His stimulus packages won't do much to shorten the downturn -- although they will make it less painful -- but they will do a great deal to change our nation.

In implementing his agenda, Barack Obama will emulate the example of Franklin D. Roosevelt. (Not the liberal mythology of the New Deal, but the actuality of what it accomplished.) When FDR took office, he was enormously successful in averting a total collapse of the banking system and the economy.

But his New Deal measures only succeeded in lowering the unemployment rate from 23 percent in 1933, when he took office, to 13 percent in the summer of 1937. It never went lower. And his policies of over-regulation generated such business uncertainty that they triggered a second-term recession. Unemployment in 1938 rose to 17 percent and, in 1940, on the verge of the war-driven recovery, stood at 15 percent.

But in the name of a largely unsuccessful effort to end the Depression, Roosevelt passed crucial and permanent reforms that have dominated our lives ever since, including Social Security, the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission, unionization under the Wagner Act, the federal minimum wage and a host of other fundamental changes.

Obama’s record will be similar, although less wise and more destructive. He will begin by passing every program for which liberals have lusted for decades, from alternative-energy sources to school renovations, infrastructure repairs and technology enhancements.

These are all good programs, but they normally would be stretched out for years. But freed of any constraint on the deficit — indeed, empowered by a mandate to raise it as high as possible — Obama will do them all rather quickly.

But it is not his spending that will transform our political system, it is his tax and welfare policies. In the name of short-term stimulus, he will give every American family (who makes less than $200,000) a welfare check of $1,000 euphemistically called a refundable tax credit. And he will so sharply cut taxes on the middle class and the poor that the number of Americans who pay no federal income tax will rise from the current one-third of all households to more than half. In the process, he will create a permanent electoral majority that does not pay taxes, but counts on ever-expanding welfare checks from the government. The dependency on the dole, formerly limited in pre-Clinton days to 14 million women and children on Aid to Families with Dependent Children, will now grow to a clear majority of the American population.

Will he raise taxes? Why should he? With a congressional mandate to run the deficit up as high as need be, there is no reason to raise taxes now and risk aggravating the depression.

Instead, Obama will follow the opposite of the Reagan strategy. Reagan cut taxes and increased the deficit so that liberals could not increase spending. Obama will raise spending and increase the deficit so that conservatives cannot cut taxes. And, when the economy is restored, he will raise taxes with impunity, since the only people who will have to pay them would be rich Republicans.

Complete article found HERE

Wild Thing's comment........

Like a lot of Dick Morris predictions, I hope he is wrong about these also. But it is a very interesting article and one that I think is important. I never ever want to have my head in the sand or close my eyes to what is happening or mighit one day come to pass. Not when it comes to our country. If we know ahead of time the possibilities both good or bad then maybe we can be prepared in some way, if nothing else how to handle it.

Our best hope I think is his being fooled by the press fawning into overplaying his hand. The sooner the better. And one other thing, there actually are some dems in power that will vote against Obama's programs and his wanting to spend, spend, spend.

The GOP has ceased to be an effective opposition party and if they don't get their act together and vote agaisnt all these things that will hurt our country Obama would want to do then when will they, if not now when. They cannot wait till the next election because by then it will be too late.

If a majority of the electorate remains passive and easily dazzled by the celebrity cult they’re promoting, they can keep this going indefinitely no matter what kind of damage they do. It’ll be like Mussolini’s Italy with a smiley face.

....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.

Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67

Posted by Wild Thing at January 22, 2009 03:48 AM

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Comments

Posted by: TomR at January 22, 2009 10:39 AM

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Posted by: Jack at January 22, 2009 11:48 AM

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Posted by: Les at January 22, 2009 04:19 PM

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Posted by: Wild Thing at January 22, 2009 07:38 PM

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Posted by: Wild Thing at January 22, 2009 07:46 PM

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Posted by: Wild Thing at January 22, 2009 07:48 PM

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