Posted on 04/05/2009 2:51:19 PM PDT by Graybeard58
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was intended to provide handicap ramps and other "reasonable accommodations" for the disabled. Over time, however, government vastly expanded the ADA's scope. Through legislation, regulation and litigation, the act classified almost every accommodation as reasonable, created enormous unnecessary expenses for business and perversely made employers reluctant to hire the handicapped.
The purpose of the Clean Air Act of 1963 was to reduce smog. But through amendments, bureaucratic activism and creative judicial interpretations, the government has contorted the act beyond recognition, to the point where it can declare a naturally occurring, life-sustaining compound — carbon dioxide — a pollutant so hazardous that remediation is possible only through further oppressive regulation and a multitrillion-dollar tax scheme.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was meant to outlaw discrimination, but government likewise exploited it to impose racial quotas, affirmative action and reverse discrimination, curb free speech, and nurture America's race-baiting industry. Through these acts and many others, the government put limits on liberty.
In this context, what should Americans make of the Obama administration's demand for the power to seize insurance and investment firms it deems "in trouble"? Insolvent companies used to go into bankruptcy, where they were reorganized or dismantled. But with last year's bailout of Bear Stearns, followed by the takeover of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG, followed by the de facto nationalization of the America's largest banks and GM and Chrysler, government plunged its fangs into the private sector and liked the taste. In the new era of socialism, most companies are called "too big to fail" to make them ripe for nationalization. Big Government believes it must own and control them so it can dictate what their executives are paid, what risks they may take and what product they may sell.
But why would power-drunk government stop at the banks, automakers, et al.? The airline industry is reeling; surely, the bureaucrats and politicians will conclude, the government can do better: "Look what we did for AIG." A lot of retailers, hotel conglomerates, oil companies and home builders are "in trouble," too. Why not make them subsidiaries of Big Government Inc.?
Because government-run businesses always are less profitable and too political; because government's stewardship of the public sector has been a disaster, and there's no reason to believe it would do better running corporations; government meddling in the private sector is responsible for today's multiple economic crises; because government doesn't understand how market forces work; but mostly, because government has no business being in business with businesses.
When the ADA was passed, no one envisioned it one day would make alcoholics and drug addicts the lawful equivalent of paraplegics. But if the government gives itself the power to take over insurers and investment firms, a blind man can see where that would take America.
Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
If you want on or off this list, let me know.
Thanks for the ping Graybeard.
The Radical Left soils our institutions.
The “long march” continues.
Thanks. I don’t know why the link didn’t appear, I put it in where it’s supposed to go.........or maybe I didn’t. I’m getting very forgetful in my dotage.
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