The Culture of Compulsion

According to President Obama, he doesn’t believe in Big Government. When he asked Congress to send him a recovery plan, he told the nation in his almost State of the Union speech, all he wanted to do was put people back to work and put money in their pockets.

Not because I believe in bigger government – I don’t.

On the strength of that, writes Tony Blankley, we can say, in the spirit of bipartisanship that reigned from 2003-2008:

Obama lied; the economy died.

According to Obama’s own Budget Overview, federal spending will increase from the 20 percent range in the Bush years to over 22 percent in the mid 2010s.

So on the basis of numbers, he is going for Bigger Government.

But then there is the program side. In his budget proposal, President Obama proposes the following:

• Increase federal government control over health care
• Increase spending on education
• Create a fast-track renewable energy program and create a carbon cap-and-trade tax

Come on, Mr. President. In the immortal words of fictional silent-screen movie star Lina Lamont: What do you think I am? Dumb or something?

What you want to do is increase the span of compulsion. You want to increase the government’s control over the American people. You want to introduce more compulsion into health care. You want to increase the amount of compulsion in education. You want to increase the amount of compulsion in energy production and consumption.

Let’s face it. President Obama and the Democratic Party are hopelessly lost in a pernicious Culture of Compulsion. Everything they want to do, they want to do it by force and compulsion.

Tell the truth, Mr. President. And shame the devil. Your program is a program of Big Government.

(Ain’t opposition fun!)