One thing I always loved about Bush and his administration is that he seemed to have a philosophy of governance. Unlike Clinton who just floated with polls, I got the feeling that Bush had a “Mission Statement” that he pushed his people to take seriously and that he reviewed daily.
Sure I would have tweaked it, but it existed.
So this morning when I read Ezra Klein asking “What is Obamanomics?” and the answer was “The administration didn’t have time for philosophy. It had to put out fires – and fast” I realized that answered a lot of questions.
No wonder Obama acts like such an amateur. He is.
The rest of the piece is a love fest trying to make Obama look pretty safe. As if Obama were enamored with the good of private markets even while taking them over. Mr. Klein looks at five sectors:
1. The Financial Sector
Calls to remake the financial sector were also rejected, and regulation focused on new safeguards and emergency procedures rather than a new way of doing business. Calls to nationalize the banks were rejected.
Instead of nationalizing the banks he instead “put out fires”.
So what happens is someone screams, “The poor need protection!!” and Obama rushes in with his weapons of regulation to force banks to play his game. Banks, of course are not playing ‘games’. They’ are in a business and are looking to make money. The poor suffer.
(ht Threesources)
2. The auto sector. Or more specifically GM and Chrysler. Here Mr. Klein admits Obama did not await private markets. Instead he suggests that Obama did what private markets really “would have done” had they been working correctly.
Members of the administration believe they did what a working market would’ve done, shepherding the automakers through a modified bankruptcy process,
GM is still with us. We’ll see how long they last now that they’re on their own again.
3. Stimulus
Apparently since there was no single reason for people to get out of the markets, yet people were still “hoarding”, the stimulus was, again, all about privatization. LOL
create sufficient confidence to get the market functioning again.
We know that didn’t work.
4. Housing
In housing the government “helped” privatization by handing out $8000, keeping interest rates low and buying up loans through Fannie and Freddie…..
Other people, those who actually believe in privatization, would more likely call this propping up a market so it continues to live in its bubble and not be allowed to bottom out as quickly as it could have so we’d be on the road to real recovery now.
5. And my favorite of all, Obamacare.
Ezra suggests that here Obama worked to “create a market” where previously none existed.
Elsewhere, when a market didn’t exist but needed to, they tried to create one. In the health-care overhaul, the administration looked to construct a functioning market for individuals and small groups, to replace one where for people with preexisting conditions, health insurance wasn’t available at any price.
Yes, Obama, moderate guy that he is worked hard to create this market of ….what was that number again….oh yeah...8000 people, in order to keep markets private.
Anyway – I woke this morning and chuckled at this column in the Washington Post by Mr. Klein. Then while cruising the sphere, I find he apparently made a funny even earlier. He spoke about the Constitution “not being binding”. Eyeblast has the video.
It’s kind of funny. Ezra Klein, who created Journolist, really jumped into the scene with his comment about that quaint 100 year old document the Constitution, or whatever. This latest article had two major themes: tongue bath to Obama and a head fake to let everyone stop examining his utterly imbecilic comment that the Constitution is too hard to understand.
Instapaundit had it spot on when it called him credentialed yet uneducated. When an alleged journalist creates a coordinated secret network to take down any politicians is allowed to keep his job, doesn’t that speak volumes about the state of that so called profession.
Ezra Klein is a cheerleader and a dumb one at that.