The Pissed Off Tree Rat

I have compared Obama’s candidacy to that of Jimmy Carter’s several times in the past.  The parallels are unmistakable.  As least to a simple guy like me.  Jeffery Lord has saved me allot of time by summing up the policy comparison in his piece today for The American Spectator.

Excerpts: Obama’s windfall profits tax idea? A Jimmy Carter biggie. “Unless we tax the oil companies, they will reap huge and undeserved windfall profits,” fumed Carter on national television in 1980. The New York Times agreed, warning darkly that “legislators who sit by idly while oil profits soar will have to answer to the voters.” With Democrats controlling Congress they got their way. As if on cue, oil production — fell. To the tune of 1.6 billion fewer barrels. America’s dependence on foreign oil rose. Eventually even the Timeswas agreeing the tax had to be repealed, and by 1988 Reagan, who campaigned against it, signed the repeal (by a Democrat Congress no less) into law. And Obama wants to do this all over again? Yes.

Another Carter favorite was to appear to attack the wealthy, going after “rich businessmen” who enjoyed themselves with the “$50 martini lunch.” Elected, Carter went after the martini business lunch tax deduction all right, but then quickly turned on the middle class with a Social Security payroll tax. Obama is already well on board with Carteresque rhetoric about “tax cuts for the wealthy.”

Tax cuts? Not for Obama. Military superiority? No, not for Obama…… But Obama, as with Carter, is having none of these approaches. From hiking Social Security payroll taxes to investing 20 percent less in defense budgets to telling Americans they had an “inordinate” fear of Communism, step by step Carter’s policy selections and his decisions on the role of government led the American people down a dark and dangerous path that produced the worst economy since the Great Depression along with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and a beachhead in Central America with the Communist take-over of Nicaragua.

This entry was posted on 13 May 2008 at 4:42 pm and is filed under Politics with tags Carter, Obama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.