The Politics of Hurry

So the Obama Administration uses the word “crisis” quite often, and as we’ve discussed before, Rahm Emanuel wholeheartedly approves. For a party that criticized the use of fear tactics after 9/11 in admonishing citizens for giving up their constitutional rights, there seems to be no end to their willingness to circumvent the legal processes that make up the checks and balances that have kept this type of naked power grab in check for over 200 years, but here we go anyway… The end result – bad legislation enacted as a result of the politics of hurry.

Let’s start with the most blatant overstepping of bounds with the czars…

Czars – on what Constitutional authority do these appointees of the President base their activities? Here’s the latest tally from Something New Every Day:

- Border Czar Alan Bersin
- Energy Czar Carol Browner
- Urban Czar Adolfo Carrion, Jr.
- Infotech Czar Vivek Kundra
- Faith-based Czar Joshua DuBois
- Health Reform Czar Nancy-Ann DeParle
- TARP Czar Herb Allison
- Stimulus Accountability Czar Earl Devaney
- Non-proliferation Czar Gary Samore
- Terrorism Czar John Brennan
- Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein
- Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske
- Guantanamo Closure Czar Daniel Fried
- Great Lakes Czar Cameron Davis
- Special Master for Compensation Kenneth Feinberg
- Cybersecurity Czar (yet to be named)

Special envoys that fall into the czar category:

- Afghanistan/Pakistan special envoy Richard Holbrooke
- Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell
- Special Advisor for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia Dennis Ross
- Sudan special envoy J. Scott Gration
- Climate special envoy Todd Stern

Paygo – a legislative farce from both parties. Clever semantics meant to confuse the American people with the veil of fiscal responsibility. Notice that any talk of “paygo” only applies to spending they haven't discussed yet or it isn’t applicable to the grandiose plans they have already pitched with no ability to pay for.

Stimulus – the 1st real emergency: No measureable effect whatsoever - especially in the "saved jobs" category. They projected top unemployment at 8%. It is currently at 9.4%. Biden says they “guessed wrong”. Less than 15% has been spent. What happened to shovel-ready? We can’t afford for them to “guess” on this level.

How’s this for an example of shovel-ready? A perfect example of how the administration is not thinking things through clearly in their rush to pass emergency legislation: The massive stimulus bill that added a whopping $25 per week to many Americans paychecks has now made hundreds of thousands ineligible to continue receiving their food stamp benefits. With the generosity of the government, they took more away from the families they purport to protect the most. The government giveth, and then they taketh away.

Bailout – the ongoing emergency: TARP money can be paid back – but not all of it… only limited amounts as the government sees fit. Now, repayments are being viewed as revolving funds – which also STILL have no Constitutional authority. This is another example of what happens once you give the government a new power or the right to impose a new tax – It. Never. Goes. Away.

GM/Chrysler bankruptcy settlements – the too-big-to-fail emergency: The UAW came out with larger chunks of ownership in both companies which is really strange because they had NO ownership going in! Not to mention this injustice was committed at the expense of secured creditors such as retirement and pension funds. The President has absolutely NO CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY to make these decisions, strike deals, or use funds in this manner. The bigger question is will they be willing to make the hard decisions they forced management into these past 10-20 years?

Meanwhile, the government continues to repay their unions buddies in the overnight and airline industries by changing the rules of operation for successful companies to now benefit unions by making it easier for them to organize. Small insertions into the turbo legislation now modifies the Railway Labor Act to benefit companies like UPS, but more so the Teamsters – who desperately want to organize at FedEx. UPS has no problems with this since it will hurt FedEx. Neither does the union. Big surprise. I use this as an example of liberals bringing down efficient success instead of requiring others to step up and compete. Instead of all boats rising in the tide, all boats fall by draining the swamp.

Healthcare – the most pressing emergency (now for a decade or more...): This impending debacle will be paid for via a “downpayment” (notice that isn’t “pay-as-you-go”) by increasing taxes (on a dwindling segment of) on $250K earners to the tune of $634 Billion, plus yet-to-be-identified phantom savings of $313 billion that the White House parrots are calling “scoreable”. Does Obama stop to think that the same people he’s telling to take less for their services are the same people he expects to increase taxes on to pay for this exercise in socialized futility? Let’s hope this remains a challenge in Congress.

Climate change (cap and trade) – the manufactured emergency: We are the only civilized country willing to damage our own economy further by these unilateral policies. Don’t believe the hype.

And in all of this drunken spending that is so necessary to ward off impending doom that only the government can foresee, the apologists at NYT say this was all set in motion by Bush . Just can’t let go and take responsibility for once, can they?

I say the only thing we need to expedite is the days and weeks until the 2010 elections to stop this madness. It is nothing short of “sound-bite legislation” which cannot be good. Americans are already showing significant signs of buyer’s remorse as many polls will indicate. However, for now we can expect “the politics of hurry” to be the call over the Summer - as if we haven’t waited decades enough already, that this now has to be done in less than 5 weeks or the door will close forever.

Someone be sure to latch the windows too.

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Quick Hits

Iranian Elections – why is it that we condemn Iran for not allowing free speech and debate within a few days of the elections, and shutting down texting and social networking sites to quell anger over what appears to be a tainted outcome…yet we enacted laws that say similar silencing of free speech is perfectly acceptable (McCain-Feingold)?

Twitter – Is twittering real time updates really the best use of our legislators’ time both at the state and federal levels?
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Sczary Situation

Barack Obama has appointed another "Czar" in the past week, or is it two... heck, I can't keep up. What I do know is that there are now like, 19 or something. This small cadre of individuals have been appointed by the President to advise, manage, control, rule over (...choose your administrative style) particular aspects of our nation's business - and now of private business. While this is not unprecedented in its approach, Obama has taken it to a new level. A dangerous level. The President is using Czars as pseudo-Cabinet posts and giving them practically equal power. Yet, there are no checks or balances on this power as prescribed by the Constitution.

A lot of bloggers and conservative pundits have sounded the alarms about the US heading into Socialism or Fascism under this administration. Yet, they come out on occasion and pitch the people on why another czar is necessary. The last two appointed were for food and nutrition and executive compensation. It begs the question... are they right?

Czars are not accountable to ANY branch of government. They are not voted on by the people. They are not confirmed by Congress. There is no precedent within the courts to validate their existence. The key factor is that they "serve at the request of the President". Meanwhile, they are influencing, if not making policy that affects all Americans. So, when we don't like a decision they make, what is our recourse?

I think people are beginning to recognize this for what it is. A naked power grab for the President to have the final say in as many matters of American life as possible. I think Obama has stayed true to his radically-associative past. A leopard doesn't change its spots.

By skirting the constitutional processes in place, the President is gambling on his "I won" attitude that he will be allowed to do this unchecked. However, we get to vote again in 2010, in some places this year. As I noted before, the political winds are changing and Americans on both sides don't like what they see out of this President and Congress. As Democrats in NY vote with the Republican leadership because their own is too radical, and as Conservatives make a comeback in Europe to keep the Left in check, so too will American swing back to the middle.

Americans bought into the idea of change. And I agree. Change is sorely needed in DC. But with this President, it isn't even "the more things change, the more they stay the same"... This President is intent on the "fundamental" change he touted during the campaign. Where that leads, no one knows. But my guess is that when we get there, we won't like what we've allowed him to do.
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Reality Check

I post this with the link because it shows the very real and perilous situations we are faced with in dealing with terrorism. To sugar-coat this as the current administration feels compelled to do, is not only dangerous, it's naive and foolish. The link below showcases examples of what we now know as the very nebulous "Overseas Contingency Operations" (formerly known as the War on Terror).

In a muted review of Obama's "outreach" speech to the Muslim world, Rubicon3 has a pictorial reminder (Graphic Content Warning) of what Islamic extremism has brought us in return. He truthfully asks the question, "And I wonder, where is their attempt at outreach?"

Commenter Charles posts, "We gave peace a chance - they gave us 9/11."

On point, Rubicon. We can't change history, and neither should we forget it.
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Quick Hits

Exactly how do you “save jobs”? Currently the administration is taking credit for creating or saving 150,000 jobs in first 100 days. Now, the administration claims to be able to create or save 600,000 by the end of the summer. Well that’s just dandy considering over 2 million jobs have been lost since Obama’s election in November and the unemployment rate is at a staggering 9.4%. What about the other millions of people whose jobs haven't been “saved” by Obama? The house of cards is falling.

But still, I want to know who is quantifying this. During the campaign, Obama promised to create or save anywhere from 2.5 million to 5 million new jobs (including "green" jobs). However, as expected, his rhetoric was very light on details. Even now with the proclamation of “saving” jobs, he’s still light on details. The perpetual campaign continues. As Mitch McConnell and others have observed, the economy would probably begin to recover organically if the government would just get out of the way. Another case of the cure being worse than the disease.

(Side note: I thought the vast majority these projects were “shovel-ready”: "It takes time to organize projects, to get the bids in, the funds out and the work started," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.)

Green is the color of money And that’s the money that people are making off of poor schlubs who think they have to “go green” in everything they do. However, it does not appear as though going green is always the best option. It looks like in many cases in the US, mass transit fares worse than the automobile both in operation AND in construction emissions. Wow. Can’t imagine how that is setting with Mr. Gore.

But the larger implication is this…if they can’t get it right on a smaller scale dealing ONLY with transportation systems, how do they think there will be any possibility of accuracy on a national/industrial scale and how will it be measured? Once again, ideology trumps common sense as the left attempts to hurry through more taxes (cap and trade) and controls over YOUR life. After all, you’re not smart enough to know what’s good for you, right? One size fits all around here now. Do you think the people in rural Nebraska are keen on the idea of paying federal taxes from cap and trade to pay for the pollution generated from the major coastal cities? Doubtful.

The Military wins another battle against a fierce enemy The Supreme Court upheld the military’s “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy. I think this is the appropriate decision. First of all, this is one thing that Clinton took heat for, but is turning out to be a good thing. Secondly, the last thing we need is a drop in morale because soldiers cannot trust or believe they can’t trust the man or woman fighting next to them. And finally, it does not matter what your sexual preference is if you can pick off a terrorist from 1000 yards.

The military is designed to fight external wars against common enemies of the country. It is not a place for fighting politically-driven ideological wars internally that ultimately benefit no one.

Anyone else sense the political winds are shifting? Rasmussen does.
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