If this is what the American people want, so be it, but they ought to have no illusions about the perils of this approach. Mr. Obama is proposing among everything else $1 trillion in new entitlements, and entitlement programs never go away, or in the oddly poetic bureaucratic argon, “sunset.” He is proposing 1.4 trillion in new taxes, an appetite for which was largely was whetted by the shameful excesses of American CEO corporate culture. And finally, he has proposed $5 trillion in new debt, one-half the total accumulated national debt in all US history. All in one fell swoop.
He tells us that all this is going to work because the economy is going to be growing by 3.2 percent a year from now. Do you believe that? Would you take out a loan based on that? And in the three years following, he predicts that our economy will grow by 4 percent a year.
This is nothing if not audacious hope. If he’s right, then looking back, March 2009 will be the dawn of the Age of Stimulation, or whatever elegant phrase Niall Ferguson comes up with. If he turns out to be wrong, then it will look very different, the entrance ramp to the Road to Serfdom, perhaps, and he will reap the whirlwind that follows, along with the rest of us.
As eloquent as he is, there is absolutely nothing intellectual about this reasoning. HotAir seemingly welcomes Buckley back into the conservative fold for his thinly veiled buyer's remorse. I'm not sure he should be allowed back. His summation is that Obama is rolling the dice with at best a 50/50 shot of success, and damning all of us to the results. Far be it from me to deem the actions of a degenerate gambler as being anti-intellectual, but let's call a spade a spade.
As far as I'm concerned, Buckley can rot in the desolate wilderness of his pure anti-intellectualism.
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Thanks Paul.
ReplyDeleteBuckley is probably not the last one to say out loud "oh crap, what have I done?"
Lets' see: Buckley outlines the outrageous actions Soetoro is taking (voicing no judgment), then tells us that it is either going to "work" or not "work." Thanks.
ReplyDeleteMaybe someday Buckley will decide he wants to have an intellect again. Or maybe not.
"As far as I'm concerned, Buckley can rot in the desolate wilderness of his pure anti-intellectualism."
ReplyDeleteI'm with you. I just KNEW that sooner or later buckley would regret his decision. I'm surprised that he's come forward to admit it and so soon. Only a little over a month after Obamas inauguration.
I sure would like to know what went through his head when he endorsed Obama. His reasons were a bit vague and unsubstantive. I could have told him then that all this was going to happen.
I hold my head up high in that I was smarter than the intellectual Christopher Buckley.
I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say nothing went through Buckley's head when he endorsed Obama. There were only 3 reasons to vote for him: ignorance, the promise of a free ride, or accumulation of power. The first two are a little redundant, but I think many people hope so fervently that Socialism will work, they can't see its faults. Personally, I can't understand why people can't learn from history.
ReplyDeleteObama laid out all of his plans in the Blueprint for America. There is no reason for anyone to be surprised by this. The only thing that surprises me is the ignorance of the American people and the willingness of Congress to destroy our country. Call me naive, but I hoped the Democrats would have had more class than this. Mind you, I didn't hold out much hope.
That nasty little devil sitting on my shoulder wants me to say: so be it. Let the people have Socialism and all the misery it will bring them. Although they certainly deserve to learn a lesson about the true nature of government power, there is no reason why the rest of us should suffer. I'm glad to see Conservatives have finally found their voices. I'm impressed it only took a month to put together the Tea Party protests. I attended the one in Atlanta, and people are genuinely angry. I think it's about time we all marched off to Galt's Gulch and let the Liberals have their fairy tale. The sooner it falls apart, the better for the rest of us.