From a “Glorious Burden” to an “Annual Burden,” Obama has Ruined His Presidency

From a “Glorious Burden” to an “Annual Burden,” Obama has Ruined His Presidency
By John Ransom
6/25/2012

The White House is trying to recast president Obama’s image- again. This time he's an eager reformer just trying to do away with all the red tape getting in the way of the economy.

Since the class warfare thing didn’t work, the Sandra Fluke thing alienated the very voters- Catholics- who provided Obama his margin of victory in 2008 and Americans are becoming disenchanted with a president who, honest-to-goodness, thinks everything is “fine”- except that taxes are too low- why not try casting Obama in a part wholly and utterly unbelievable?

Obama wants to be known as the president who cut all the red tape.

This should work out very nicely for him.

Mr. Dukakis your tank is waiting.

From BloombergBusinessWeek:

Federal agencies face a Sept. 10 deadline to find new ways to trim paperwork burdens on business, according to a memo from Cass Sunstein, the top White House regulatory overseer.

“All agencies should attempt to identify at least one initiative, or combination or initiatives, that would eliminate at least 50,000 hours in annual burden,” Sunstein said in a June 22 notice to the heads of agencies and executive departments.

Sunstein is another one of Obama’s legal scholars from Harvard who has some pretty strange ideas. What would this White House be without all the Harvard men and their strange ideas?

One of Sunstein’s ideas is that the internet is a bad thing because it allows people to spread falsehoods that might harm innocent organizations, like say, the Obama campaign.

He wants to figure out a way to stop free speech and free assembly on the internet.

Now you know where the misshapen idea came from that saw the White House asking American to forward rumor and innuendo found on the internet to the White House so they could take action on it.

I mean if the Czar of All Regulations really thinks that his job is to spy on people on the internet, what hope do have for people in the messy game of commerce and industry?

I think it’s time for the country to be a little under-governed rather than a lot over-governed.

“No offense Homer,” Bart Simpson told his dad, “your half-assed-under-parenting was a whole lot better than your half-assed-over-parenting.”

And so it goes with the boys from Harvard.

So here’s the thing: If you want one initiative to do away with our “annual burden,” how about stop messing with American businesses? Or let’s get rid of the folks who are messing with American businesses to start with.

Let’s agree to start with Obama.

At the end of July last year the Heritage Foundation detailed in Red Tape Rising the mounds of red tape that the Obama administration had subjected the country to from 2009 when he was inaugurated to mid-year 2011, not including pending Obamacare and Dodd-Frank regulations, which will tower over all other government tape bales. “Overall, the Obama Administration imposed 75 new major regulations from January 2009 to mid-FY 2011, with annual costs of $38 billion,” reports Heritage. In contrast, there were only six deregulatory actions by the Obama administration saving $1.5 billion says the Heritage report. And those costs were just the cost by the government to implement the regulations.

In terms of the overall impact on the economic health of the country, the figure is much higher. “More specifically, the total cost of federal regulations has increased to $1.75 trillion,” writes the federal government’s own Small Business Administration. Heritage reports that that’s nearly twice the amount that the government collects annually in individual income taxes, calling it a hidden tax, not just on the rich, but on everyone equally.

It’s getting tiring telling liberals and certain unaffiliated voters I told you so.

But even Democrats are getting tired of the “annual burden” of carrying Obama.

And as another Democrat in a competitive district abandons Obama, I just can’t resist.

I. Told. You. So.

That goes especially for independent voters.

Democrat Congressman Mike McIntyre (D-NC) has refused to endorse Obama, citing his concern for his own reelection bid in eastern North Carolina.

“We’ve always been steadfast in our work for eastern North Carolina,” said McIntyre. “And I’m grateful because we’ve had Republican and Democratic friends who supported us because they know my heart is here and it’s not about any party agenda or any other person’s agenda. Our focus is on the congressional race and Eastern North Carolina.”

Growing up I was taught that the mantle of the presidency was considered “a glorious burden.”

Under Obama, we have turned it into an annual one.

Even Democrats agree.
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To read another article by John Ransom, click here.