Romer To Leave White House
August 5, 2010 5:54 PM
By Kirk Victor
Christina Romer, chairwoman of Pres. Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, has decided to resign, according to a source familiar with her plans.
Romer, an economics professor at the University of California (Berkeley) before taking the key admin post, did not respond to repeated calls to her office.
"She has been frustrated," a source with insight into the WH economics team said.
"She doesn't feel that she has a direct line to the president. She would be giving different advice than Larry Summers [director of the National Economic Council], who does have a direct line to the president."
"She is ostensibly the chief economic adviser, but she doesn't seem to be playing that role," the source said.
The WH has been pounded for its faulty forecast that unemployment would not top 8% after its economic stimulus proposal passed.
Instead, the jobless rate is 9.5%, after exceeding 10% last year.
It was "a horribly inaccurate forecast," said Bert Ely, a banking consultant. "You have to wonder why Summers isn't the one that should be taking the fall. But Larry is a pretty good bureaucratic infighter."
http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2010/08/romer
_to_leave.php
Monday, August 9, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Let them eat cake, First Lady?
Material girl Michelle Obama is a modern-day
Marie Antoinette on a glitzy Spanish vacation
by Andrea Tantaros
Posted: Thursday, August 5th 2010, 1:53 AM
Sacrifice is something that many Americans are becoming all too familiar with during this economic downturn.
It was a key theme in President Obama's inaugural address to the nation, and he's referenced it numerous times when lecturing the country on how to get back on its feet.
But while most of the country is pinching pennies and downsizing summer sojourns - or forgoing them altogether - the Obamas don't seem to be heeding their own advice.
While many of us are struggling, the First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain with 40 of her "closest friends."
According to CNN, the group is expected to occupy 60 to 70 rooms, more than a third of the lodgings at the 160-room resort. Not exactly what one would call cutting back in troubled times.
Reports are calling the lodgings of Obama's Spanish fiesta, the Hotel Villa Padierna in Marbella, "luxurious," "posh" and "a millionaires' playground." Estimated room rate per night? Up to a staggering $2,500. Method of transportation? Air Force Two.
To be clear, what the Obamas do with their money is one thing; what they do with ours is another. Transporting and housing the estimated 70 Secret Service agents who will flank the material girl will cost the taxpayers a pretty penny.
Perhaps it could be that the Obamas, who seem to fancy themselves more along the lines of international celebrities than actual leaders, espouse a different view of sacrifice.
When Michelle Obama accompanied her husband to Copenhagen along with best buddy Oprah Winfrey, she billed the trip - an ultimately unsuccessful bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago - as follows:
"As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the President to come for these few days, so many of you in this room have been working for years to bring this bid home."
A quick jaunt to Denmark is a sacrifice? What portraits in courage!
The Obama modus operandi is becoming clear. From lavish trips to Spain to reportedly flying Bo, the President's Portuguese water dog, on a separate aircraft to vacation with them in Maine, to a date night in New York City that perhaps cost nearly $100,000, their idea of austerity is really just the lap of luxury, at least for ordinary folks.
Incredibly, the Obamas have long portrayed themselves as precisely such commoners.
Just this month, Obama told ABC the First Couple is "not that far removed from what most Americans are going through." And that "it was just a few years ago that we had high credit card balances, we had two kids, thinking about college. We had our own retirement accounts, wondering if we were going to be able to get enough assets in there."
If that's true, why not select a more appropriate destination like the California coast? The scenery is just as gorgeous as that of Spain, and instead of patronizing a foreign country they would be pumping money into an American economy that desperately needs it.
Camp David wouldn't exactly be slumming it, either. A long weekend there would really send a message of responsibility, leadership and compassion.
For a couple that has sharply criticized former President George W. Bush so widely, they could stand to follow his example for once and select a more low-key locale, as Bush regularly did in his Texas vacations.
Instead, Michelle Obama seems more like a modern-day Marie Antoinette - the French queen who spent extravagantly on clothes and jewels without a thought for her subjects' plight - than an average mother of two.
While she's spent her time in the White House telling parents they should relieve their chubby kids' dependency on sugar and stressing the importance of an organic veggie garden, hopping a jet to Europe to meet with Spanish royalty isn't the visual the White House probably wants to project.
Perhaps they've forgotten the damning image of John Kerry, on the eve of the 2004 election, windsurfing off the coast of Nantucket?
I don't begrudge anyone rest and relaxation when they work hard. We all need downtime - the First Family included.
It's the extravagance of Michelle Obama's trip and glitzy destination contrasted with President Obama's demonization of the rich that smacks of hypocrisy and perpetuates a disconnect between the country and its leaders.
Toning down the flash would humanize the Obamas and signify that they sympathize with the setbacks of the people they were elected to serve.
In January, President Obama insisted that "everybody in the country is going to have to sacrifice something, accept change for the greater good. Everybody is going to have to give. Everybody is going to have to have some skin in the game."
If sacrifice is the precursor to change, what will the family that ran on change offer up?
Elitist doublespeak won't cut it.
andrea@andreatantaros.com
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/08/04/2010-08-04_mat
erial_girl_michelle_obama_is_a_modernday_marie_antoinette_on_a_
glitzy_spanish.html
Marie Antoinette on a glitzy Spanish vacation
by Andrea Tantaros
Posted: Thursday, August 5th 2010, 1:53 AM
Sacrifice is something that many Americans are becoming all too familiar with during this economic downturn.
It was a key theme in President Obama's inaugural address to the nation, and he's referenced it numerous times when lecturing the country on how to get back on its feet.
But while most of the country is pinching pennies and downsizing summer sojourns - or forgoing them altogether - the Obamas don't seem to be heeding their own advice.
While many of us are struggling, the First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain with 40 of her "closest friends."
According to CNN, the group is expected to occupy 60 to 70 rooms, more than a third of the lodgings at the 160-room resort. Not exactly what one would call cutting back in troubled times.
Reports are calling the lodgings of Obama's Spanish fiesta, the Hotel Villa Padierna in Marbella, "luxurious," "posh" and "a millionaires' playground." Estimated room rate per night? Up to a staggering $2,500. Method of transportation? Air Force Two.
To be clear, what the Obamas do with their money is one thing; what they do with ours is another. Transporting and housing the estimated 70 Secret Service agents who will flank the material girl will cost the taxpayers a pretty penny.
Perhaps it could be that the Obamas, who seem to fancy themselves more along the lines of international celebrities than actual leaders, espouse a different view of sacrifice.
When Michelle Obama accompanied her husband to Copenhagen along with best buddy Oprah Winfrey, she billed the trip - an ultimately unsuccessful bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago - as follows:
"As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the President to come for these few days, so many of you in this room have been working for years to bring this bid home."
A quick jaunt to Denmark is a sacrifice? What portraits in courage!
The Obama modus operandi is becoming clear. From lavish trips to Spain to reportedly flying Bo, the President's Portuguese water dog, on a separate aircraft to vacation with them in Maine, to a date night in New York City that perhaps cost nearly $100,000, their idea of austerity is really just the lap of luxury, at least for ordinary folks.
Incredibly, the Obamas have long portrayed themselves as precisely such commoners.
Just this month, Obama told ABC the First Couple is "not that far removed from what most Americans are going through." And that "it was just a few years ago that we had high credit card balances, we had two kids, thinking about college. We had our own retirement accounts, wondering if we were going to be able to get enough assets in there."
If that's true, why not select a more appropriate destination like the California coast? The scenery is just as gorgeous as that of Spain, and instead of patronizing a foreign country they would be pumping money into an American economy that desperately needs it.
Camp David wouldn't exactly be slumming it, either. A long weekend there would really send a message of responsibility, leadership and compassion.
For a couple that has sharply criticized former President George W. Bush so widely, they could stand to follow his example for once and select a more low-key locale, as Bush regularly did in his Texas vacations.
Instead, Michelle Obama seems more like a modern-day Marie Antoinette - the French queen who spent extravagantly on clothes and jewels without a thought for her subjects' plight - than an average mother of two.
While she's spent her time in the White House telling parents they should relieve their chubby kids' dependency on sugar and stressing the importance of an organic veggie garden, hopping a jet to Europe to meet with Spanish royalty isn't the visual the White House probably wants to project.
Perhaps they've forgotten the damning image of John Kerry, on the eve of the 2004 election, windsurfing off the coast of Nantucket?
I don't begrudge anyone rest and relaxation when they work hard. We all need downtime - the First Family included.
It's the extravagance of Michelle Obama's trip and glitzy destination contrasted with President Obama's demonization of the rich that smacks of hypocrisy and perpetuates a disconnect between the country and its leaders.
Toning down the flash would humanize the Obamas and signify that they sympathize with the setbacks of the people they were elected to serve.
In January, President Obama insisted that "everybody in the country is going to have to sacrifice something, accept change for the greater good. Everybody is going to have to give. Everybody is going to have to have some skin in the game."
If sacrifice is the precursor to change, what will the family that ran on change offer up?
Elitist doublespeak won't cut it.
andrea@andreatantaros.com
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/08/04/2010-08-04_mat
erial_girl_michelle_obama_is_a_modernday_marie_antoinette_on_a_
glitzy_spanish.html
Friday, August 6, 2010
Food stamp use hit record 40.8m in May
Food stamp use hit record 40.8m in May
Bloomberg News / August 5, 2010
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans who are receiving food stamps rose to a record 40.8 million in May as the jobless rate hovered near a 27-year high, the government reported yesterday.
Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies for food purchases jumped 19 percent from a year earlier and increased 0.9 percent from April, the US Department of Agriculture said in a statement on its website.
Participation has set records for 18 straight months.
Unemployment in July may have reached 9.6 percent, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts in advance of the Aug. 6 release of last month’s rate. Unemployment was 9.5 percent in June, near levels last seen in 1983.
An average of 40.5 million people, more than an eighth of the population, will get food stamps each month in the year that began Oct. 1, according to White House estimates.
The figure is projected to rise to 43.3 million in 2011.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/08
/05/food_stamp_use_hit_record_408m_in_may/
Bloomberg News / August 5, 2010
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans who are receiving food stamps rose to a record 40.8 million in May as the jobless rate hovered near a 27-year high, the government reported yesterday.
Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies for food purchases jumped 19 percent from a year earlier and increased 0.9 percent from April, the US Department of Agriculture said in a statement on its website.
Participation has set records for 18 straight months.
Unemployment in July may have reached 9.6 percent, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts in advance of the Aug. 6 release of last month’s rate. Unemployment was 9.5 percent in June, near levels last seen in 1983.
An average of 40.5 million people, more than an eighth of the population, will get food stamps each month in the year that began Oct. 1, according to White House estimates.
The figure is projected to rise to 43.3 million in 2011.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/08
/05/food_stamp_use_hit_record_408m_in_may/
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Two Wolves
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life.
"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.
"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves."
"One wolf is evil, unhappy and ugly: He is anger, envy, war,
greed, selfishness, sorrow, regret, guilt, resentment, inferiority, superiority, false pride, coarseness and arrogance. He spread lies, deceit, fear, hatred, blame, scarcity, poverty and divisiveness."
"The other wolf is beautiful and good: He is friendly, joyful, loving, worthy, serene, humble, kind, benevolent, just, fair, empathetic, generous, honest, compassionate, grateful, brave and inspiring resting wholeheartedly in deep vision beyond ordinary wisdom."
"The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee replied, "The one you feed."
(author unknown)
"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.
"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves."
"One wolf is evil, unhappy and ugly: He is anger, envy, war,
greed, selfishness, sorrow, regret, guilt, resentment, inferiority, superiority, false pride, coarseness and arrogance. He spread lies, deceit, fear, hatred, blame, scarcity, poverty and divisiveness."
"The other wolf is beautiful and good: He is friendly, joyful, loving, worthy, serene, humble, kind, benevolent, just, fair, empathetic, generous, honest, compassionate, grateful, brave and inspiring resting wholeheartedly in deep vision beyond ordinary wisdom."
"The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee replied, "The one you feed."
(author unknown)
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Happy Birthday, Mr. President?
from tony whitcomb
to info@barackobama.com
cc "Barnett, Robert"
democraticparty@democrats.org,
ofaminnesota@dnc.org,
thomas@bluestatedigital.com
date Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 2:11 PM
subject Happy Birthday, Mr. President?
mailed-by gmail.com
Mrs. Obama --
My name is Tony Whitcomb and on July 27, 2010 I received a e-mail from you which was entitled, "Will you sign Barack's birthday card, Tony?"
Mrs. Obama your e-mail states, "Every year our family tries to come up with a fun way to wish Barack a happy birthday and on this August 4th, when he turns 49, I have something new in mind."
Mrs. Obama with all due respect, a corrupt politician and/or his wife using a very non-special occasion such as this, to send a extremely condescending, self-congratulatory e-mail to the American People in a very transparent attempt to solicit campaign contributions, is really nothing new in 2010.
Please tell Malia, Sasha, and Bo, the American People know the three of them had absolutely nothing to do with the writing or the sending of this e-mail and shame on both you and your husband for using your children and your family pet, in this deliberate public hoax.
Happy Birthday President Obama and in the words of Frank Sinatra, "May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine."
Sincerely,
Tony E. Whitcomb
Founder/CEO Expotera
http://expotera-ceo.blogspot.com/2010/08/will-you-sign-baracks
-birthday-card.html
to info@barackobama.com
cc "Barnett, Robert"
democraticparty@democrats.org,
ofaminnesota@dnc.org,
thomas@bluestatedigital.com
date Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 2:11 PM
subject Happy Birthday, Mr. President?
mailed-by gmail.com
Mrs. Obama --
My name is Tony Whitcomb and on July 27, 2010 I received a e-mail from you which was entitled, "Will you sign Barack's birthday card, Tony?"
Mrs. Obama your e-mail states, "Every year our family tries to come up with a fun way to wish Barack a happy birthday and on this August 4th, when he turns 49, I have something new in mind."
Mrs. Obama with all due respect, a corrupt politician and/or his wife using a very non-special occasion such as this, to send a extremely condescending, self-congratulatory e-mail to the American People in a very transparent attempt to solicit campaign contributions, is really nothing new in 2010.
Please tell Malia, Sasha, and Bo, the American People know the three of them had absolutely nothing to do with the writing or the sending of this e-mail and shame on both you and your husband for using your children and your family pet, in this deliberate public hoax.
Happy Birthday President Obama and in the words of Frank Sinatra, "May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine."
Sincerely,
Tony E. Whitcomb
Founder/CEO Expotera
http://expotera-ceo.blogspot.com/2010/08/will-you-sign-baracks
-birthday-card.html
Monday, August 2, 2010
Will you sign Barack's birthday card, Tony?
from Michelle Obama info@barackobama.com
reply-to info@barackobama.com
to Tony Whitcomb
date Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 2:56 PM
subject Will you sign Barack's birthday card, Tony?
mailed-by bounce.bluestatedigital.com
Tony --
Every year, our family tries to come up with a fun way to wish Barack a happy birthday.
And this August 4th, when he turns 49, I have something new in mind.
This has been a big -- and hectic -- year for him.
After signing the Affordable Care Act and Wall Street reform into law -- and completing his first year as president -- I think it's safe to say we will remember it for a long time.
And I know full well how much he credits this movement, and the work of supporters like you, for the change that we've accomplished.
So I'm putting together a birthday card that I would like you to sign.
Together with other Organizing for America supporters -- and me, Malia, Sasha, and Bo -- we'll wish him a happy birthday and let him know that we're ready to take on the year ahead alongside him.
Will you wish Barack a happy birthday with me?
This year also brought a lot of surprises -- some good and some bad.
Supporters like you have helped him make the best of it -- by contacting Congress to help push stalled legislation forward, by re-engaging supporters in the political process, by giving back with service projects across the country, and so much more.
And while we can't know what the coming year will bring, all of us, working together, will continue pushing forward for change.
Will you help make this a memorable birthday for Barack and wish him a happy 49th?
http://my.barackobama.com/birthday
Thanks so much,
Michelle Obama
reply-to info@barackobama.com
to Tony Whitcomb
date Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 2:56 PM
subject Will you sign Barack's birthday card, Tony?
mailed-by bounce.bluestatedigital.com
Tony --
Every year, our family tries to come up with a fun way to wish Barack a happy birthday.
And this August 4th, when he turns 49, I have something new in mind.
This has been a big -- and hectic -- year for him.
After signing the Affordable Care Act and Wall Street reform into law -- and completing his first year as president -- I think it's safe to say we will remember it for a long time.
And I know full well how much he credits this movement, and the work of supporters like you, for the change that we've accomplished.
So I'm putting together a birthday card that I would like you to sign.
Together with other Organizing for America supporters -- and me, Malia, Sasha, and Bo -- we'll wish him a happy birthday and let him know that we're ready to take on the year ahead alongside him.
Will you wish Barack a happy birthday with me?
This year also brought a lot of surprises -- some good and some bad.
Supporters like you have helped him make the best of it -- by contacting Congress to help push stalled legislation forward, by re-engaging supporters in the political process, by giving back with service projects across the country, and so much more.
And while we can't know what the coming year will bring, all of us, working together, will continue pushing forward for change.
Will you help make this a memorable birthday for Barack and wish him a happy 49th?
http://my.barackobama.com/birthday
Thanks so much,
Michelle Obama
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Will Washington's Failures Lead To Second American Revolution?
Investors Business Daily Editorials:
Will Washington's Failures Lead To Second American Revolution?
By Ernest S. Christian and Gary A. Robbins
Posted 07/30/2010 06:30 PM ET
The Internet is a large-scale version of the "Committees of Correspondence" that led to the first American Revolution — and
with Washington's failings now so obvious and awful, it may lead
to another.
People are asking, "Is the government doing us more harm than good? Should we change what it does and the way it does it?"
Pruning the power of government begins with the imperial presidency.
Too many overreaching laws give the president too much discretion to make too many open-ended rules controlling too many aspects of our lives. There's no end to the harm an out-of-control president can do.
Bill Clinton lowered the culture, moral tone and strength of the nation — and left America vulnerable to attack. When it came, George W. Bush stood up for America, albeit sometimes clumsily.
Barack Obama, however, has pulled off the ultimate switcheroo: He's diminishing America from within — so far, successfully.
He may soon bankrupt us and replace our big merit-based capitalist economy with a small government-directed one of his own design.
He is undermining our constitutional traditions: The rule of law and our Anglo-Saxon concepts of private property hang in the balance. Obama may be the most "consequential" president ever.
The Wall Street Journal's steadfast Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote that Barack Obama is "an alien in the White House."
His bullying and offenses against the economy and job creation are so outrageous that CEOs in the Business Roundtable finally mustered the courage to call him "anti-business." Veteran Democrat Sen. Max Baucus blurted out that Obama is engineering the biggest government-forced "redistribution of income" in history.
Fear and uncertainty stalk the land. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says America's financial future is "unusually uncertain."
A Wall Street "fear gauge" based on predicted market volatility is flashing long-term panic. New data on the federal budget confirm that record-setting deficits in the $1.4 trillion range are now endemic.
Obama is building an imperium of public debt and crushing taxes, contrary to George Washington's wise farewell admonition: "cherish public credit ... use it as sparingly as possible ... avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt ... bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be Revenue, that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not ... inconvenient and unpleasant ... ."
Opinion polls suggest that in the November mid-term elections, voters will replace the present Democratic majority in Congress with opposition Republicans — but that will not necessarily stop Obama.
A President Obama intent on achieving his transformative goals despite the disagreement of the American people has powerful weapons within reach. In one hand, he will have a veto pen to stop
a new Republican Congress from repealing ObamaCare and the Dodd-Frank takeover of banks.
In the other, he will have a fistful of executive orders, regulations and Obama-made fiats that have the force of law.
Under ObamaCare, he can issue new rules and regulations so insidiously powerful in their effect that higher-priced, lower-quality and rationed health care will quickly become ingrained, leaving a permanent stain.
Under Dodd-Frank, he and his agents will control all credit and financial transactions, rewarding friends and punishing opponents, discriminating on the basis of race, gender and political affiliation. Credit and liquidity may be choked by bureaucracy and politics — and the economy will suffer.
He and the EPA may try to impose by "regulatory" fiats many parts of the cap-and-trade and other climate legislation that failed in the Congress.
And by executive orders and the in terrorem effect of an industrywide "boot on the neck" policy, he can continue to diminish energy production in the United States.
By the trick of letting current-law tax rates "expire," he can impose a $3.5 trillion 10-year tax increase that damages job-creating capital investment in an economy struggling to recover.
And by failing to enforce the law and leaving America's borders open, he can continue to repopulate America with unfortunate illegals whose skill and education levels are low and whose political attitudes are often not congenial to American-style democracy.
A wounded rampaging president can do much damage — and, like Caesar, the evil he does will live long after he leaves office, whenever that may be.
The overgrown, un-pruned power of the presidency to reward, punish and intimidate may now be so overwhelming that his re-election in 2012 is already assured — Chicago-style.
• Christian, an attorney, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury in the Ford administration.
• Robbins, an economist, served at the Treasury Department in the Reagan administration.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/542171/201007
301830/Will-Washingtons-Failures-Lead-To-Second-American-Revolu
tion-.aspx
Will Washington's Failures Lead To Second American Revolution?
By Ernest S. Christian and Gary A. Robbins
Posted 07/30/2010 06:30 PM ET
The Internet is a large-scale version of the "Committees of Correspondence" that led to the first American Revolution — and
with Washington's failings now so obvious and awful, it may lead
to another.
People are asking, "Is the government doing us more harm than good? Should we change what it does and the way it does it?"
Pruning the power of government begins with the imperial presidency.
Too many overreaching laws give the president too much discretion to make too many open-ended rules controlling too many aspects of our lives. There's no end to the harm an out-of-control president can do.
Bill Clinton lowered the culture, moral tone and strength of the nation — and left America vulnerable to attack. When it came, George W. Bush stood up for America, albeit sometimes clumsily.
Barack Obama, however, has pulled off the ultimate switcheroo: He's diminishing America from within — so far, successfully.
He may soon bankrupt us and replace our big merit-based capitalist economy with a small government-directed one of his own design.
He is undermining our constitutional traditions: The rule of law and our Anglo-Saxon concepts of private property hang in the balance. Obama may be the most "consequential" president ever.
The Wall Street Journal's steadfast Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote that Barack Obama is "an alien in the White House."
His bullying and offenses against the economy and job creation are so outrageous that CEOs in the Business Roundtable finally mustered the courage to call him "anti-business." Veteran Democrat Sen. Max Baucus blurted out that Obama is engineering the biggest government-forced "redistribution of income" in history.
Fear and uncertainty stalk the land. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says America's financial future is "unusually uncertain."
A Wall Street "fear gauge" based on predicted market volatility is flashing long-term panic. New data on the federal budget confirm that record-setting deficits in the $1.4 trillion range are now endemic.
Obama is building an imperium of public debt and crushing taxes, contrary to George Washington's wise farewell admonition: "cherish public credit ... use it as sparingly as possible ... avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt ... bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be Revenue, that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not ... inconvenient and unpleasant ... ."
Opinion polls suggest that in the November mid-term elections, voters will replace the present Democratic majority in Congress with opposition Republicans — but that will not necessarily stop Obama.
A President Obama intent on achieving his transformative goals despite the disagreement of the American people has powerful weapons within reach. In one hand, he will have a veto pen to stop
a new Republican Congress from repealing ObamaCare and the Dodd-Frank takeover of banks.
In the other, he will have a fistful of executive orders, regulations and Obama-made fiats that have the force of law.
Under ObamaCare, he can issue new rules and regulations so insidiously powerful in their effect that higher-priced, lower-quality and rationed health care will quickly become ingrained, leaving a permanent stain.
Under Dodd-Frank, he and his agents will control all credit and financial transactions, rewarding friends and punishing opponents, discriminating on the basis of race, gender and political affiliation. Credit and liquidity may be choked by bureaucracy and politics — and the economy will suffer.
He and the EPA may try to impose by "regulatory" fiats many parts of the cap-and-trade and other climate legislation that failed in the Congress.
And by executive orders and the in terrorem effect of an industrywide "boot on the neck" policy, he can continue to diminish energy production in the United States.
By the trick of letting current-law tax rates "expire," he can impose a $3.5 trillion 10-year tax increase that damages job-creating capital investment in an economy struggling to recover.
And by failing to enforce the law and leaving America's borders open, he can continue to repopulate America with unfortunate illegals whose skill and education levels are low and whose political attitudes are often not congenial to American-style democracy.
A wounded rampaging president can do much damage — and, like Caesar, the evil he does will live long after he leaves office, whenever that may be.
The overgrown, un-pruned power of the presidency to reward, punish and intimidate may now be so overwhelming that his re-election in 2012 is already assured — Chicago-style.
• Christian, an attorney, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury in the Ford administration.
• Robbins, an economist, served at the Treasury Department in the Reagan administration.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/542171/201007
301830/Will-Washingtons-Failures-Lead-To-Second-American-Revolu
tion-.aspx
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