SocraticGadfly: Pat Buchanan floats his own scare tactics on Obama

October 28, 2008

Pat Buchanan floats his own scare tactics on Obama

Laughable at least, hypocritical at most

Despite Buchanan not having incredible closeness to John McCain, he too is willing to float ridiculous scare tactics. And, this is from a conservative who once was honest enough to admit that many conservative comments are about “working the refs” and not about what’s real.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s Pat making his prediction about Obama’s mythical first 100 days:
Specifically, we can almost surely expect:

• Swift amnesty for 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens and a drive to make them citizens and register them, as in the Bill Clinton years. This will mean that Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona will soon move out of reach for GOP presidential candidates, as has California.

• Border security will go on the backburner, and America will have a virtual open border with a Mexico of 110 million.

• Taxes will be raised on the top 5 percent of wage-earners, who now carry 60 percent of the U.S. income tax burden, and tens of millions of checks will be sent out to the 40 percent of wage-earners who pay no federal income tax. Like the man said, redistribute the wealth, spread it around.

• Social Security taxes will be raised on the most successful among us, and capital gains taxes will be raised from 15 percent to 20 percent. The Bush tax cuts will be repealed, and death taxes reimposed.

• Two or three more liberal activists of the Ruth Bader Ginsberg-John Paul Stevens stripe will be named to the Supreme Court. U.S. district and appellate courts will be stacked with "progressives."

• Special protections for homosexuals will be written into all civil rights laws, and gays and lesbians in the military will be invited to come out of the closet. "Don't ask, don't tell" will be dead.

• The homosexual marriages that state judges have forced California, Massachusetts and Connecticut to recognize, an Obama Congress or Obama court will require all 50 states to recognize.

• A "Freedom of Choice Act" nullifying all state restrictions on abortions will be enacted. America will become the most pro-abortion nation on earth.

• Affirmative action — hiring and promotions based on race, sex and sexual orientation until specified quotas are reached — will be rigorously enforced throughout the U.S. government and private sector.

• Universal health insurance will be enacted, covering legal and illegal immigrants, providing another powerful magnet for the world to come to America, if necessary by breaching her borders.

• A federal bailout of states and municipalities to keep state and local governments spending up could come in December or early next year.

• The first trillion-dollar deficit will be run in the first year of an Obama presidency. It will be the first of many.

Here’s why we won't get any of that, primarily the social issues.

1. Obama is on record as opposing gay marriage. And of favoring an expansion of Bush’s faith-based initiatives.

2. Cass Sunstein ain't that liberal; if he's a possible SCOTUS choice, you get an idea of Obama's thinking there. (Oh, and contrary to Buchanan's lie, Ginsberg isn't that liberal herself; Stevens is iconoclastic, but probably more liberal overall than she is.)

3. Per Krugman et al, Obama's current plans will NOT get us to universal healthcare.

4. On immigration, unless Obama tries to out-Bush Bush on executive orders, any such changes would require Congressional action. As for “amnesty,” it was Ronald Reagan, not Bill Clinton, who backed a previous amnesty for illegal immigrants in the 1980s.

Now, on the economic side.

1. A trillion-dollar deficit — annual deficit, not national debt — would be more than double what it is now. While it would not be a huge surprise if the deficit increases in 2009, at least, Pat is just being ridiculous.

2. Paulson staying on, Larry Summers coming back or NY Fed head Tim Geithner (another GS alum) being named are the rumored top three Obama choices for Treasury. Obama won’t get wide-eyed in general. That said, maybe states will NEED some federal backstopping. Did you ever think of that, Pat?

3. “Death taxes”? Make me laugh, Pat.

That all said, it’s still not too late to vote Green for any and every office you can.

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