Change that scares the crap out of you

It has been nearly one year since Mr. "Change You Can Believe In" was sworn into office, and now a lot of Americans are scratching their heads. There has been plenty of change, but a great deal of that change is not what they signed up for when they went in the voting booth in November 2008.


Others are in shock that the President is actually enacting the policies that he claimed he would on the campaign trail. Health care reform? Isn't that something that every Presidential candidate says he'll do because it sounds good? Because I don't actually want my health care to change...I kind of like things the way they are. Oh, you don't care that most of America does not want your version of reform and you are going to pass it anyway? What kind of politician are you?!?


As politicians go, President Clinton was one of the best. Suave. Convincing. Told the American people just what we wanted to hear. When Clinton's advisor, Dick Morris, approached him before the his 1996 campaign for reelection and asked whether he would rather complete items on his political agenda or win a second term, which would include a move to the center, Clinton chose the second term. He was a true politician, and when he saw the writing on the wall that America was moving right, he chose to move with it. Will President Obama do the same? I don't think he will.


President Obama is different. When he set out to "fundamentally transform America", he meant it, even at the cost of losing Demoratic Congressional seats in the mid-term elections or his own bid for reelection in 2012. The past year has been a whirwind of legislation in D.C.


First, there was the $787 billion stimulus package that was passed in the first 2 weeks of taking office. It was, after all, an emergency that the bill get passed. The months following the passage of the bill, showed that the stimulus was not so stimulating for the economy. The bill has been a disaster, and not surprisingly, unemployment has been greater than 10% for the last 3 months (and keep in mind that figure does not include individuals that have given up in their search for employment). Greg Mankiw writes one of my favorite blogs, and shows a chart of what the administration said unemployment would be with and without the stimulus package, and a third line showing actual unemployment figures. (Click here for the chart.) The next time talk of a stimulus bill that must be passed comes up, every American needs to see this chart.


While the entire country was celebrating Michael Jackson's life to ad nauseum, your US House of Representatives passed Cap & Trade. Oh, you didn't hear about that since MJ was plastered on the TV screen and newspaper pages for a month straight? Well that certainly was convenient, because I'm guessing most of America would not have responded positively to a huge tax on the middle class. Fortunately, the Senate did not pass a Cap & Trade bill in 2009, but you can bet it is on the docket for 2010. Meanwhile, we're in the middle of the coldest winter in decades. I despise cold weather, but the frigid temperatures are more bearable knowing that it is another nail in global warming's casket. You better bundle up, Al Gore, it's chilly out there!

Since we are in the middle of a recession and two wars, Obama's main initiative for the year was health care reform. Errrrrch...back up. Health care reform?! For the last 6 months, the President and Congress have been trying to ram through a bill that has become increasingly unpopular. When it passes -- and at this point, we know that it will -- it will be the most partisan vote on major legislation in modern history. Like Medicare and Social Security before it, this health reform bill will be permanent. Unlike Medicare and Social Security, the Democrats will have no one to blame but themselves for the disaster that ensues.

These are scary times. Change is not always good, especially the kind of change that fundamentally transforms the country you love.