President Ozbama has gotten his hands on the largest political slush fund ever amassed in history. But unlike others’ slush funds, assembled surreptitiously in dark rooms, brought to a central point by quiet men ferrying satchels of cash, his has been made out in the open for us all to see – although the media haven’t called it what it is.
It should be noted that what the president’s up to is perfectly natural to him. Just about the only item on his leaf thin resume is cutting his teeth in
And it’s going to come in handy soon. That pesky 2010 Congressional election is coming at him more quickly than he would like. He must prevent a Gingrich-like Republican take-over, must prop up Democrats in well-deserved danger, and he must keep intact a majority beholden to and frightened of him.
Before that he must, among other things, get a monstrous, increasingly suspect and unpopular health care system takeover passed by Congress and to his desk to sign. How? That’s where the money comes in.
No one knows for sure, but an averaging of the best estimates bandied about would have $600-billion of the stimulus money yet unspent. There are about $200 billion in repaid TARP funds – which should have gone back to the U.S. Treasury from whence they came, but they have not; Obama’s henchman Tricky Tim baldly refuses. So, there is $800-billion in a shoebox in the corner of the oval office, for him to dole out as he pleases. Or he can wave it under the noses of Congressmen, governors, mayors, union bosses – whoever – until they are fixed on its scent. Then he can snatch it back and withhold it unless they meet his demands.
Obama has our $800-billion to buy the election or re-election of his puppets, to block the election of those he can’t rely on, to buy subservience and punish resistance. He has our money with which to manipulate any local economy or any segment of the national economy up or down or sideways to any desired effect, to create the illusion of progress wherever needed – a bridge project here but none there, stimulus to this business while starving another, creating customers for one favored employer while spiking lay-offs elsewhere.
Cash for clunkers is a nifty piece of such legerdemain. With a mere $3 billion (which will cost your grandkids $9 billion to try and pay off), he has the media showing us stampedes of car buyers and gleeful car dealers yammering about selling hundreds of cars, validating his bail-out of GM and Chrysler and take-over of GM as brilliant. But this is just another instance of picking some to win while others lose.
I work with an advisor to 3,000 auto repair shop owners – all small businessmen. They’re already telling him of their terror; they’re losing customers they depend on, each of whom spend a few hundred dollars a year to keep their old cars well. Used car dealers are being deprived of inventory and buyers. Charities are being deprived of donated cars. Their money dried up, while the cash for clunkers payola moves upstream to the big auto companies and their unions. It is also creating a very Fannie Mae-like bubble, pushing people who had no car payments into car payments and higher auto insurance premiums they can’t long afford, setting up a wave of future repossessions. He cares not about that nasty side effect, inflicted on the very people for whom he claims to be protector and benefactor. He cares only for the illusion bought at our expense and what leverage it might buy him.
Unfortunately for Ozbama, some people cannot be bought or bribed or subdued by simple threat of no-candy-for-you. Like the radicals daring to disrupt the town meetings orchestrated to convince the public his health care takeover is for their good and must be rushed to completion. These people know nothing of his $800-billion stash. It has no power over them. And they are so damned loud even his most ardent suck-ups in his loyalist media can’t totally ignore them.
So they must be silenced. Obama cannot risk grass roots dissent, anymore than the dictators in
Dan Kennedy is a serial entrepreneur, adviser to business owners, sought-after speaker and author of 13 books. More information about Dan can be found at www.NoBSBooks.com, and a free collection of his business resources including newsletters and webinars at www.DanKennedy.com.
