THE NEW TRANSPARENCY

I was on vacation when the financial regulation legislation was passed.  They were still debating it before I left, and I thought it was rather chiilling that Senator Dodd (D-CT) came out and said:

“No one will know until this is actually in place how it works. But we believe we’ve done something that has been needed for a long time. It took a crisis to bring us to the point where we could actually get this job done.”

That's right, Senator Dodd - never let a good crisis go to waste!  His rhetoric about not knowing how it works is chilling on two levels.  First, if Dodd -one of the alleged co-authors of the bill - doesn't even know how it works, we're really screwed.  Second, we've heard that "we'll know when it's passed" line before:




For those not up on the latest ObamaCare outrage, the rationing has begun.

As for FinReg (aka the Frank-n-Dodd law), the first victim to be revealed is a key one - transparency.  The FinReg allows the SEC to ignore FOIA requests from the public.  This is hardly surprising in a bill whose details would not be released until after it's passage, from an administration that touts transparency but doesn't seem to know what the term really means.  Remember the five day rule?  How about posting bills for 72 hours online before a vote?  Remember how that turned out?  How about the transparency of Obama's appointed officials - oh, wait, czars don't need vetting or congressional approval. 

None of these things bode well for the country, but many of them can be fobbed off with some lame excuse or another from Media Matters.  The neo-pravda media certainly won't pursue them, and in the progressive world, if the press doen't think it is important, it must not be. 

However, Obama's recent transfer of "ethics czar" Norm Eisen to an ambassadorship in the Czech Republic and scrapping the position altogether seems to be the final nail in the transparency coffin.  Most of the duties Eisen performed are being shunted off on White House Counsel Bob Bauer, a hyperpartisan lawyer who, in 2006 blogged (via the Washington Examiner):

"disclosure is a mostly unquestioned virtue deserving to be questioned." This is the man the White House has put in charge of making this the most open White House ever.

Most telling might have been Bauer's statements about proposed regulations of 527 organizations: "If it's not done with 527 activity as we have seen, it will be done in other ways," he told the Senate rules committee.

"There are other directions, to be sure, that people are actively considering as we speak. Without tipping my hand or those of others who are professionally creative, the money will find an outlet."

Ah, transparency - why bother regulating something and keeping an eye on things to keep people honest - they're just going to eventually find a way around it anyway!

After all, this is the White House that is circumventing White House visitor logs by simply meeting with lobbyists and other special interests at the coffee shop across the street.  When you add in the neo-pravda media's tendencies to pander and obfuscate for their chosen party, there is most certainly a serious problem brewing.

There has been a disturbing trend developing with Pelosi, Obama and Reid - it seems that whatever they claim, the exact opposite is generally true.  So far, Obama's eliminating the position of transparency czar, and thus the pretense of transparency, is the truest thing this administration has done so far. 

THE CALIFORNIA MICROCOSM

There are those of us who have been a bit riled up over the drastic increase in government since President Obama took office, and feel that government should be small and not intrude into everyday life (not to mention our free markets) too much. Those on the left saw fit to ridicule us and reiterate how necessary it is for a prosperous country to have a large, strong, omnipotent government dictating and regulating all facets of American life.

So who is right?

Well, if California is anything to go by, I'd have to say that the left are not just wrong, but delusional. A study of regulation and bureaucracy by California State University at Sacramento (a state-run school, not a private entity, by the way) found that a major reason for the economic collapse of the state is due directly to the ridiculous amount of regulation involved. To the tune of nearly $500 Billion.

Imagine the tab if they manage to 'fundamentally transform' the rest of the country in California's image. Considering it seems like San Francisco's Nancy Pelosi is in charge of the domestic agenda, that possibility isn't as remote as most of us would like.

As the trendy folk might say, we're Californicated.

Check out the whole report here.

SCORE ONE FOR DEMOCRACY!

Congratulations, people of America! You just scored a major victory, proving that democracy is alive and well in our beloved Republic. The administration is doing two things, due to pressure from the American people:

1) The public option seems to be off the table. The free market is sighing in relief, I'm sure. Instead, they are eyeing co-ops, which will be examined more in-depth as the week goes on. This is a HUGE win, absolutely huge. The fight isn't over yet, though, because it still has to go through committee, where all sorts of interesting things happen to bills.

2)Doctors will no longer get paid to suggest end-of-life counselling (for those 'death panels' that the administration said didn't exist...well, until they took them out). They can still offer it, of course, and there are times when it is necessary. But to offer cash incentives is to open up the possibility of abuse. After all, President Obama himself has told us that doctors are willing to lop off limbs and yank tonsils all the time for the cash, right? What's a little counselling?

Yes, the exchange got heated for a while, and probably will remain so, since there are so many other questionable things still in the bill, but this is a wonderful victory, and something to savor.

Mmmmmm, delicious! Soooo satisfying....

Okay, enough savoring!

Now it's time to get them to take out the access to our bank accounts, reverse the White House deal with big PhRMA so that certain Plan B drugs can be moved to Plan D, saving seniors money - oh, and don't forget the tort reform and insurance regulation allowing it to be transportable and not employer-dependent!

It's unfortunate that we had to shout so loudly (and, apparently, offensively) and take a few shots, both verbal and physical, before they would listen, but at least we finally got their (breathtakingly tone deaf) ear.

Now, let's see if they keep listening.