The chickens are coming home to roost
The WSJ’s Dan Henninger pens a sobering piece today that talks at length about Barack Obama’s now-obvious attempts at making the private sector take second place behind government “solutions” that will only “empower” people to depend and rely more and more on the federal government to “resolve” economic and financial problems rather than the private sector by throwing billions of $$ and over-regulation at it in hopes that it will “cure” our problems. Not to mention the massive amounts of $$ Obama plans to spend on “entitlement programs” which won’t just be paid for by the “super-rich.”
If you haven’t had your coffee yet this morning. Don’t bother. That article will wake you up better than even the most leaded of brews.
The sad part is, this didn’t have to happen.
For years we heard from Democrats on how Bush’s “stay the course” strategy in Iraq wasn’t working and how he needed to admit his mistakes and change course. Of course when he finally did admit mistakes, he was given no credit for it, and when he changed course, he was laughed at and told it couldn’t be done by many of those same Democrats – like our current president when he was serving as the junior Senator from IL – who then turned around and demanded a pullout. They were wrong then, and are wrong now, and most of them – including President Obama, still won’t admit it.
Yet Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and a countless number of other Democrats can parade before the cameras for years telling concerned Republicans – including those in the Bush administration – about how things were “just fine at FM/FM.” Some of them even accused the Republicans who wanted more oversight and accountability at FM/FM of “racism” because they thought the crux of the matter was the GOP’s alleged “hatred” for black people. It’s a matter of record what the Bush administration and other Republicans tried to do, and it’s also a matter of record what Democrats like Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Maxine Waters tried to do, and that’s to thwart any reform measures that had any teeth whatsoever, which is why no meaningful reform bill ever got passed during the first 6 years, and certainly not the last two when Democrats controlled Congress.
The galling part – on top of the meltdown currently underway – is the fact that these SAME Democrats (Dodd, Frank, etc) were “demanding” answers from the Bush adminstration last fall on FM/FM as though the Bush administraton never did anything to try and prevent this from happening, and as if Republicans like McCain, Dole, Sununu, etc never tried to get meaningful reform passed, and as if they (Dodd, Frank, etc) were the ones who were actually trying to spearhead meaningful reform efforts. If lightening really did strike people who lied as it relates to this issue there would be a bunch of Congressional Democrats lighting up the House and Senate with enough electrical power to comfortably heat up the east coast for the entire fall and winter seasons.
None of those Democrats were/are admitting their part in enabling the financial meltdown – not admitting their role in keeping policies in place that enabled the “greedy lenders” to do what they did, not admitting their role in fostering the “gimme” entitlement mentality that has infested this country for decades, thanks in no small part to the “Great Society” programs. They’re just content in letting the blame lay squarely on the shoulders of Bush and other Republicans. Not surprising, seeing as though personal responsibility isn’t exactly a hallmark for many Democrats in Washington, DC.
Bush wasn’t a perfect president by far, and made plenty of mistakes, but he – and other Republicans – actually did try to get it right on this issue by advocating and pushing for policies that may have prevented the collapse of FM/FM, and the people who prevented meaningful reforum were race-baiting, politically correct demagoguing Democrats, many of whom were beneficiaries of campaign $$ from FM/FM.
What’s the moral of this story? When Bush made mistakes, he was made to feel obligated to admit them by Democrats as a way to “move forward so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past.” But when Democrats make mistakes, they should feel no obligation to admit them and instead should shove off the blame on everything and everyone else. That way we can continue down the same destructive path – which is exactly what’s happening as we speak. It’s all becoming much more clear to me now.
Related reading:
- Democrats trying to avoid culpability over economic crisis
- Barney Frank plays the race card (surprise)
- Even more on how Democrats helped enable our current financial crisis
- Still more on how Democrats helped enable the current economic crisis
- Barack Obama’s role in the subprime lending mess
- How Democrats helped enable the current economic crisis, continued
- How Democrats helped enable the current economic crisis
- Economic meltdown: Who/what is to blame?
- McCain versus Obama on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac