Obama' Stimulus (Phyllis Schlafly nails it!)

Eagle Forum ^ | 2-27-09 | Phyllis Schlafly

[smoothsailing]

Obama's Stimulus

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by Phyllis Schlafly, February 27, 2009

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Under the subterfuge of helping the economy, Barack Obama's stimulus plan legislates vast new spending programs to finance liberal policy goals that are unnecessary and undesirable. The flow of taxpayers' money will be so gargantuan as to make Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society expansion of the welfare state look puny.

Barack Obama revealed his long-term goals in a radio interview on Chicago's WBEZ-FM in 2001. Asked about the Earl Warren court decisions that started long lines of activist decisions in many areas, Obama argued that the Warren court didn't go far enough: The Warren court changed the laws, but failed to address the economic issues to bring about "redistributive change."

Obama complained that "the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth" or "economic justice" and failed to "break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution." The stimulus plan is designed to break through those constitutional restraints on government action.

Here are some of the major "change" provisions of the 1,000-plus page act that all admit no member of Congress read before passage. This list doesn't include any of the dozens of "porky" items that Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D-NY), boasts Americans don't care about (and usually don't know about).

First, the stimulus bill repeals the essentials of welfare reform passed by the Republican Congress in 1996. It was reluctantly signed by President Bill Clinton after he realized the public was demanding reform, and after it proved popular, he tried to take credit for it.

LBJ's Great Society welfare was probably the worst of all liberal policies because it was directly responsible for destroying marriage by subsidizing illegitimacy and divorce, thereby creating a matriarchy dependent on government handouts. It wasn't poverty that destroyed marriage in the lower-income classes, it was the liberal policy of giving taxpayers' money to women, thereby making the husband and father irrelevant and even an impediment to the flow of easy money.

By setting limits on government handouts, the 1996 welfare reform encouraged welfare recipients to get jobs or job training, to make themselves self-sufficient and to end their long-term dependency on government.

The Obama stimulus plan increases the taxpayers' money that the federal government gives to the states for welfare, and reverses incentives by giving bonuses to states that put more people on welfare. The stimulus is even worse than the Great Society policies of the 1960s.

That is a good example of the Obama goal to spread the wealth around (regardless of the harm it does).

Second, the stimulus plan calls for nearly doubling federal spending on education, which means doubling federal control. This money gives Obama the opportunity to spread his friend William Ayers' "social justice" teaching (i.e., that America is an oppressive and unjust society) throughout K-16 education.

This goal will be facilitated by Obama's appointment of Arne Duncan for secretary of education, who like Obama and Ayers, is an alumnus of the Chicago political machine. Duncan made news last year with his plan to open a "gay-friendly" public high school in Chicago with a curriculum teaching "the history of all people who have been oppressed and the civil rights movements that have led to social justice and queer studies."

The gay-friendly school, to be called "Pride Campus," was quietly put on hold after Duncan's appointment as secretary of education was announced.

Third, the stimulus plan calls for Obama "change" by giving government control over access to medical treatments plus surveillance over online medical records for every American. Giving bureaucrats the power to decide which procedures have "clinical effectiveness" and may be used means nationalizing the health care industry and rationing medical care.

Fourth, the stimulus bill greatly expands by about $23 billion nearly every element of the welfare state, including food stamps, Medicaid eligibility, the earned income tax credit, the Special Supplementary Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, and child-support enforcement for single moms. The governors have just awakened to the fact that the stimulus plan will require their states to raise business taxes if they accept this new free money.

Fifth, Obama's claim that the stimulus plan cuts taxes is a fraud. A large percentage of the alleged tax "refunds" is just another handout because it will go to people who don't owe any income taxes.

Sixth, the announced purpose of the stimulus is to create jobs, but Obama's photo-op to illustrate this at Caterpillar Tractor in Peoria, Ill., turned into a political donnybrook. National television showed Obama speaking to some of the 20,000 whose jobs have been outsourced by Caterpillar and implied that the plan will enable them to be rehired.

Minutes later, Obama was contradicted by Caterpillar's CEO, who warned that, on the contrary, more layoffs are coming. It looks like the stimulus will create more government jobs plus an estimated 300,000 jobs for illegal aliens, but not much for anyone else.

Read this article online: http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2009/feb09/09-02-27.html

[erkyl]

The governors have just awakened to the fact that the stimulus plan will require their states to raise business taxes if they accept this new free money. Fifth, Obama's claim that the stimulus plan cuts taxes is a fraud.

Not only that, let me point out what has happened at my husband's real life place of business. Okay, so Corporate CEO sees incoming increase of business taxes tied to the stimulus package. He knows he's going to have to cut costs due not just to the down turn in the economy, but also due to these incoming increased business taxes. So, he also sees that Obama is offering a 'tax break' to workers called "Making Work Pay". Corporate CEO sees a chance to get back his tax increases (thus saving the company from additional lay-offs while still maintaining profits). How does he get the stimulus out of the pockets of workers and into the pockets of shareholders? Cut worker compensation across the board by 5, 10 and 20 percent. No tax break for the silly workers. And, in essence, no tax increase for businesses.

Obama, you're just not smart enough or experienced enough to avoid making these silly mistakes as president. Corporate 'greed' (i.e. survival) will always win out because they'll always be one step ahead of you.

[smoothsailing]

Thanks for posting. It's perfect for the thread!

[Cedar]

Great article, thanks for posting.

[TradicalRC]

We have no one but the Republican Party to thank for this mess, just like with the Era of Clinton: Like Father, Like Son.

[Help!]

wouldn”t vote for John McCain
I would not and did not vote for McCain.

I voted for Sara Palin, though.

Me, too. My bumper sticker was “Screwed 08”
But I did vote for Sarah

[Maximilian]

The Republican's, who we all worked hard to put into office starting in 1996, are responsible for this, nobody else. They had the chance to transform the country and they blew it thru their own irresponsible spending, not standing up to the media and drinking the DC Kool-Aid.

Thank you for injecting some sense into this discussion. What frightens me is the fact that Republicans still don't seem to get it. The new chairman of the RNC seems to want to be an Obama clone. Those pseudo conservatives who led us into this disaster seem to have learned nothing.

I'd like to hear a giant "Mea Culpa" from the entire GOP establishment. If they refuse to admit where they went wrong, then how can we ever trust them to do better in the future?

And if I don't trust them, is it likely that a Dem-leaning voter is going to do so? The GOP has absolutely no shot at ever coming back until they first realize where they went wrong and then correct their mistakes.