Barack Obama was soundly criticized for his 'empty eloquence' as John McCain labeled it. Mr. Obama has begun to add some of the substance that seemed to be missing from his earlier speeches and from his earlier debate responses. He is proving himself to be very facile and to have 'facts' well under his control. His 'facts' might be subject to further debate, but he is not easily tripped up when probed for a deeper response to nearly any topic.
This newfound substance, however, causes me some other concerns. Barack Obama appears to have never met a problem that couldn't be solved by more government intervention or more tax dollars or both.
At last count, his proposals will have added some $800 billion dollars to our tax load. He is using the populist approach of pillorying the nasty corporations that make too much money. The worst part of that is the simple fact that too many of our citizens lap it up like Mothers' Milk. Virtually anyone who has a share in a mutual fund, or who is in a 401K program or a profit-sharing plan or who is a direct stockholder participates in those 'gross' profits. It may be true that some CEOs make too much money. If that is the case, then their Boards of Directors need to take corrective action. It is not productive to take some governmental action that tanks the entire organization.
Some of those corporations that are to be targeted include the pharmaceutical companies. The stream of new 'miracle' drugs would not be present today if those corporations had been subjected to the kind of 'profit controls' that Obama and other liberals espouse. If there is no reward to be had after the ten to fourteens years of investment necessary to even determine if there is a new drug to be found, then there will cease to be risks taken...and there will absolutely be no new drugs. That is but one example.
There is ample crude oil available if the liberals would simply permit drilling to occur. The hue and cry about the trans-Alaska pipeline has proved to have been unfounded. The pipeline was elevated and the caribou walk under it. That was the solution to the plaint that migratory habits would be affected.
The crude oil could be refined more quickly and at less cost if new refining capacity had been permitted in the past two decades, but government couldn't find it in its 'heart' to permit that. So, we now import 13% of our gasoline at significantly higher costs than would've been necessary.
Barack Obama reminds me of another little-known politician from decades ago who took the country by storm and found himself in the Oval Office. His name was Jimmy Carter and he is the worst example of a U.S. president that I've seen in my lifetime. I recall the 13% prime rates and unemployment rates. I remember the Iranian hostage crisis precipitated by the folly of a foreign policy that he created. I remember the gas lines.
Barack Obama frightens me as the substance begins to be revealed. He is an old-fashioned 'tax, spend and regulate liberal' as Larry Kudlow said in his Washington Times column published on February 19th. Only his rhetoric is fresh...and that is beginning to show signs of getting tired, too.
