People I talk to are beginning to act a bit scared - even those who voted for Obama. I sense a new fear factor emerging which transcends the banking crisis. People have lost a lot of money, and foresee a business-stifling, high-taxing, low profit future which will burden generations with a bigger government we will never be able to get out from under.
The plan to phase out the mortgage, medical and charitable deductions is just one piece of a series of rule changes in the middle of the game which makes folks uneasy. It's especially uncomfortable for those within ten years of retirement, or with tuitions in their future, who made plans based on existing expectations and stability.
How do you plan for your family when the rules are in flux? How do you invest? How do you invest for retirement? How do you plan to start a business? How do you buy a house? Why would you spend a penny on anything?
Several (non-paranoid) people mentioned to me this week that wealth destruction is a deliberate policy in DC. True or not, Hopey-Changey is slowly turning into plain Scary. We predicted this.
Powerline quotes a reader comment:
If I postpone my retirement as a result of losses to my savings caused in substantial part by President Obama's policies, so that I do not leave the workforce when I had planned, does that mean that my job has been "saved" by Obama?
Never Yet Melted, with a quote from Obama's book:
Who could possibly have predicted that a red diaper baby community organizer with a life-long record of radical associations would adopt an ultra-left program of taxing and spending? Messrs. Buckley and Brooks obviously weren’t paying attention when they read Dreams from My Father. Obama explains that he learned as an adolescent that he could get away with doing drugs and raising Cain, simply by mollifying the adults in his life by speaking softly and politely.
DFMF, 94-95:
It was the start of my senior year in high school… and one day she [his mother] marched into my room, wanting to know the details of [his friend’s] arrest. I had given her a reassuring smile and patted her hand and told her not to worry. I wouldn’t do anything stupid. It was usually an effective tactic, one of those tricks I had learned: People were satisfied as long as you were courteous and smiled and made no sudden moves. They were more than satisfied; they were relieved—such a pleasant surprise to find a well-mannered young black man who didn’t seem angry all the time.
Dick Morris:
...he is determined to pass his agenda of bigger government, nationalized healthcare and vastly greater spending even at the price of inflation and subsequent recession. He puts ideology first and the economy a distant second.
The stock market has figured out his priorities and is responding accordingly. One can only hope that voters also eventually realize what is going on.
Mankiw:
Rahm Emanuel, the incoming White House chief of staff, has said, “You don’t ever want to let a crisis go to waste: it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid.”
What he has in mind is not entirely clear. One possibility is that he wants to use a temporary crisis as a pretense for engineering a permanent increase in the size and scope of the government. Believers in limited government have reason to be wary.
Why so tentative about that, Professor?
From Krauthammer's The Obamaist Manifesto:
In the European Union, government spending has declined slightly, from 48 percent to 47 percent of GDP during the past 10 years. In the United States, it has shot up from 34 percent to 40 percent. Part of this explosive growth in U.S. government spending reflects the emergency private-sector interventions of a Republican administration. But the clear intent was to make the massive intrusion into the private sector temporary and to retreat as quickly as possible. Obama has radically different ambitions.
Ed. note: To top it all off, and to add insult to injury, Congress has now given itself a pay raise, along with an extra gift of $93,000 for petty cash. If $93 grand is "petty," I am in the wrong business. With their pensions (not 401-Ks - real old-fashioned pensions) and remarkable medical plans and perks, they are entirely insulated from the consequences of their own actions. I see no collectivist "sacrifice for the common good" on the part of Congress.
In repsonse to tough times, Congress is stimulating itself: We all need to sacrifice. Well, everyone but those lucky enough to be a member of the Pelosi-Reid Congress. They gave themselves a raise last month. They now make $174,000 a year for their 3
Tracked: Mar 05, 13:07