Obama's Ideological Budget

Among other disturbing items in the Obama budget is the cap on deductions of charitable donations. The editorial staff of National Review Online have their take here. They quite correctly point out that this seems to say the government decides where to best spend charitable money. "The message is clear: Turn more of your money over to us, and we'll give it away for you."

Now aside from the nonsensical spending increases and the short-sided and wishful sources of income and savings (covered by better observers here and here-- both recommended reading), Obama's budget seems to reflect a desire to realign the nation's priorities. It's the government's sense of right that needs to be instituted, the government will take the lead and show the moral way. I've written a previous post about these dangers of government morality being used as a compass and I will not restate the argument. Obama's budget reflects much of his previous rhetoric which places the government in a morally superior position to the citizenry.

Both Democrats and Republicans have expressed opposition to his budget, especially to the reduction of charitable contributions write-offs. This is of little consequence however, as Obama has thus far been able to push through massive spending despite vocal public opposition and a total of 3 Congressional Republican votes.

This budget must be seen and addressed as the socialist policy it is. Charles Krauthammer of The Washington Post correctly points out the three great goals of Obama's budget.

1) Universal health care (bad and impersonal service to all, plus bureaucracies telling doctors what to do-- keeping it cost-efficient at the expense of lives)
2) Taxpayer-funded college educations (turning colleges into public high schools...)
3) Government funded and guided energy (can you say astonishing energy bills with brownouts?)

At the moment Obama can publicly lie about his opposition to big government, can use his ethnicity to silence many critics, can reach into his bag of rhetorical tricks and try to sell lead for gold. But this can last only so long, before moderates wise up and understand the intent and outcome of his policies and downplayed socialist ideology. His budget proposals should be resisted and protested with at least the same vigor as his "stimulus" bill.

There is a mood in this country, largely heralded by the MSM, that Obama is unstoppable and has been given a public mandate. Simply and ignorantly voting for vague change does not justify unworkable socialist mandates. We should not forget the truth of Ellis Washington's entreaty to not give into this currently popular lie: "Free-market capitalism, conservatism, Christianity are all failed ideologies. We've got to evolve beyond these anachronistic and exclusionary ideas of the past and chart a bold, new course for the America of the 21st century."