Posted by
Andrews on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 11:49:11 AM
At the moment, Nancy Pelosi and, especially, Harry Reid may be our biggest allies in the fight against total government control of the economy. I know it sounds odd, but as the saying goes, politics makes strange bedfellows.
Let us look at the situation. The Obama administration
has gained the ability to effectively take over any sector of the economy they wish, basically forcing the sector to take money from the treasury department and then using that "partnership" to exercise control over the industry in question. It gives the administration near total control over the economy if they care to exercise it.
However, the public, by and large, will not tolerate such a naked takeover, at least not beyond the banking and automotive sectors. And congress is aware of it. They know the 2010 elections are coming up, and some Democrats are already in a shaky position (including Reid himself). In addition, they know that if Obama's "recovery" fails to take off, then many more congressional seats may become risky. The closer congress is to Obama, and so far they ahve been largely a rubber stamp, the more likely voters will take out anti-Obama frustrations on congress as they once took out their anti-Bush frustrations on Republicans.
And congress no longer has a reason to stand behind Obama. They got what they wanted, the massive budget and bits of pork in the stimulus bill. True, they may be able to squeeze more out of Obama in exchange for supporting him, but the cost is high. Unless he pulls off a miracle, being too close to him in 2010 could be a serious liability.
Nor is there that much congress has to gain by being obedient to Obama's wishes. The powers he is gaining over industry are entirely executive powers, congress will not share in them. Nor does congress have much to gain should his recovery work out. If the recovery takes place, it will benefit Obama, but congress likely will get little credit. So in the best case, if they stand by Obama, they will see him getting both public accolades and gaining power, while they will see their authority slowly eroded along with their prestige.
So there is very little likelihood that congress will remain rubber stamps much longer.
I have said it before, but now I think it even more likely. Shortly we will see congress begin to break with Obama (
a few already have), begin to obstruct his more ambitious moves and begin to challenge his seizures of power. They will not do it directly, either working through proxies or behind the scenes, but they will begin to try to thwart some of his programs.
Which, oddly enough, means that until 2010 at the soonest, our best allies in the fight to retain some economic freedom may very well be the same congressional Democrats who tried to destroy economic freedom for oh so many years.