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03.01.2009 0

The Ghost of Soviet Past

  • On: 03/31/2009 10:20:03
  • In: Government Transparency
  • By William Warren

    A spectre is haunting America—the specter of unbridled Big Government command-style economics.

    Be forewarned, America. The country now has an outspoken anti-free-marketer dictating—literally—the future of American capitalism. And that future could now be decidedly bleak. Regarding the ongoing economic crisis, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner dictated the following earlier this week:

    “The market will not solve this. And the great risk for us is we do too little, not that we do too much.”

    The real great risk, of course, is that Americans continue to allow this Big Government zealot to completely dismantle the free market system in favor of a Soviet-style command economy. After all, the markets have already been so corrupted within the past year alone that to call them true “free markets” would be disingenuous.

    Going one step further than the previous administration—which admitted to abandoning “free market principles to save the free market system”—the Obama Administration is simply abandoning the free market system altogether. What they’re trying to save, however, is a complete mystery.

    What America stands to lose, on the other hand, is disturbingly obvious.

    Making sure they don’t do “too little”, Mr. Geithner and Mr. Obama have already set the nation on a course that will expand the ballooning of the annual deficit to nearly $1.9 trillion by the end of the year—and a seemingly unthinkable $9.3 trillion by 2019.

    Such an unthinkable deficit will further cement America’s servitude to foreign creditors like China—which recently earned the worldwide distinction of becoming the United States’ largest creditor, holding an estimated $1 trillion in government debt.

    Under Soviet-style command economics, the nation will see nothing less than the enthusiastic expansion of entitlements—and, henceforth, the skyrocketing of taxes and the expiration of the stimulating Bush tax-cuts. The nation can expect European-style national healthcare—the kind that people like Ted Kennedy would love to force on the masses but would quietly reject when it comes to their own surgery needs—as well as nationalized education.

    A nationalized financial system can already be checked off the list—Mr. Geithner and the Federal Government have their fingers in financial institutions all across the country and can virtually intervene in any way they deem fit.

    Similarly, the American housing industry is nearly nationalized itself. Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are already government owned—and they alone account for over half of all US mortgages.

    It’s also worth mentioning Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel’s fervent desire to get their hands on the Census Bureau and extend their authority over the national head counting process. Such blatant politicization of the census is all-too reminiscent of well-observed authoritarian tactics in the former Soviet Union and among its satellites, where “population control” was an article of faith. This, of course, leads to obvious fears that the next round of elections in 2010 and 2012 may be skewed (at the very least) in the administration’s favor.

    Speaking of skewed elections, liberal activist groups—such as ACORN, for instance—will likely be given free reign, expanded authority, and bountiful funding under President Obama’s agenda. Similarly, unions will be allowed to run amok and oppressive “card check” policies will become the standard.

    And then there’s cap-and-trade and the taxation of carbon dioxide. Under Obama’s green initiative, American industries will bow at the altar of “the environment”, forfeiting profits and tanking the economy all in the name of “saving the planet” from the boogeyman nemesis of “global warming.”

    Yes, the ghost of Soviet past is paying America a little visit. And its chilling effects are getting worse by the day.

    Now, it’s up to the American people to determine whether this unwanted guest will stay to work its woeful will. Hopefully those who truly value free markets and a free people will rise up and banish the unbridled spectre.

    If not, the country could be in for a long, arduous haunting from which it may never escape.

    William Warren is a Contributing Editor of ALG News Bureau.


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