Obama’s Insanity

It is commonly repeated that insanity is defined as doing the same thing, again and again, expecting different results. I cannot find this definition in any dictionary; nonetheless the invented definition is useful. I speak specifically of the Obama administration’s incessant references to the recession it inherited, as well as the self-absorbed tone it takes in explaining how difficult it will be for the “changes” to be implemented. Things will get worse before they get better. The recession wasn’t created in a day, it can’t be fixed in a day. Insert additional nauseatingly predictable rhetoric here.

You see, there is a colossal contradiction in Obama’s rhetoric that is not only staring, but glaring, at any honest and thinking observer. That is to say, we cannot solve the economic problems that were perpetuated and even amplified by the Bush administration by intensifying those policies.

The superstitious masses somehow tie the current recession to a lack of regulation. Programmed to approach every problem that touches the entire nation as a failure of governance, people obediently ponder what missing laws or regulations led to misfortune in question. In The Conscience of a Conservative, Goldwater posed a simple question of any potential policy decision: Are we maximizing freedom? We have allowed the political class to abandon this question, replacing it with the question, “What new dictum shall we enforce to prevent this misfortune from happening?

Returning to the revolutionary changes supposedly brought about by the Obama administration, the most important point is that they are not really changes at all. Sean Hannity’s radio show begins each day with the phrase, “The radicals have taken over.” Yet in the political landscape of the past several decades, this could not be less true. There is nothing radical about what Obama is doing, the actions of this administration fall right in line with those of his precursor. A general dissatisfaction with government sways the public one way or the other with each election year, yet the dissatisfaction never seems to dissipate when either party is ousted in favor of the other. Why is this?

Obama’s solution to every problem is an expansion of the scope of government power, as well as increase in government spending. This is nothing new. We saw the same thing throughout the eight years of the previous administration. In fact, Bush grew the almighty state like no president before him. He oversaw and smiled upon the continued devaluation of the dollar through inflation of the money supply. He not only encouraged but happily implemented the beginnings of “stimulus” bills and bailouts of companies that should have failed. Greenspan’s policies were based on easy money, Bush facilitated a shift to free money. The fed prints, the state borrows, and we are fed a curious line that tells us we should do the same as individuals. “The credit markets are frozen, but we are working to thaw them…” Ground control to major Tom, loans can realistically be made to person A only when capital has been saved by person B. Savings make lending possible. There is no magic or mysticism involved here.

As Frederic Bastiat wrote, “Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.” Yet such and endeavor is hallmark of our magnificent new ruler, and was the policy of his precursor. Obama is doing nothing different (economically) than what George Bush did, yet claims to be fixing problems that Bush created. The crazy situation is like a plumber fixing a clogged pipe by filling it with concrete. To make matters worse, no one seems to understand plumbing and all seem to believe this is a great idea!

Every administration blames the problems it faces on the previous administration. This is predictable enough. The trouble with the Obama administration is its claim that it is fixing the economy through expanding and amplifying Bush policy. It was W who declared, “The markets are not working.” Obama entered office predisposed to this notion and ready to make them work. The joke is on them. Markets always work and there is nothing that Bush, Obama, or Chelsea’s Momma can do about it. The market is the pure reality that the do-gooders will always be at war against.