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100 Days of Devastatingly Swift Success
by
Newt Gingrich
To mark President Obama’s 100th day in office, I’m going
to say something you might find unexpected, even shocking::
President Obama’s first 100 days have been spectacularly successful.
President Obama is the strongest domestic Democratic President since
Lyndon Johnson. His ability to get Democrats in Congress to give him
things that undermine their own power is impressive.
In just 100 days, President Obama has been devastatingly effective
in moving forward swiftly the most radical, government-expanding
agenda in American history.
Successfully Moving to a European Model of Government Control
At home, in everything from his economic policy to his energy policy
to his just-announced science policy, President Obama has
successfully moved the country from a traditional American model of
entrepreneurship and private initiative to a European model of
regulation and government control.
Abroad, he has succeeded in his apparent goal to be the un-George W.
Bush; replacing aggressive, if sometimes flawed, American leadership
with a humbled, weakened America on the world stage.
Judged by these standards, President Obama’s first 100 days have
been a remarkable success.
Getting Congress to Give Him Things
That Undermine Their Own Power
The Obama record in the first 100 days includes three instances of
spectacular political impunity:
• Under the guise of “economic stimulus” he was
able to pass a $787 billion gift for his liberal special
interest base. And he did it so quickly that no member of
Congress was able to read it before they voted.
• After campaigning on a pledge to end earmarks, he signed an
appropriations bill loaded with 8,000 earmarks -- and paid no
political penalty.
• President Obama has kept congressional Democrats marching with
him in lockstep. House Democrats tow the party line an amazing
94 percent of the time and Senate Democrats vote Democratic 91
percent of the time.
Two Historic
Bureaucratic Power Grabs
In these first 100 days, the Obama Administration has achieved two
historic bureaucratic power grabs:
• President Obama has transformed the Federal
Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
into giant engines of unsupervised spending. Together, they’ve
spent the equivalent of the entire federal budget for 2007,
without having to disclose where the money went.
• Just two weeks ago, the President presided over an
unprecedented bureaucratic power grab when his Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) ruled that greenhouse gases pose a
threat to public health. This seemingly innocuous decision opens
the door to wholesale regulation of American life by government.
The threat is so great that politicians and activists are using
the specter of an out-of-control EPA to force Congress to pass a
$1 trillion to $2 trillion energy tax in the form of
cap-and-trade legislation.
In Foreign Policy,
Weakness and Self-Delusion
The Obama 100 days record also includes remarkable weakness and
self-delusion overseas:
• In an attempt to overcome anti-Americanism
abroad by agreeing with it, President Obama has gone on a global
apology tour, labeling America as “arrogant, dismissive and
derisive” in front of foreign audiences.
• President Obama has unleashed a domestic war over the meaning
of guilt by caving in to the anti-American left and leaving the
door open to prosecuting Bush Administration officials over the
interrogation of terrorists who plotted to kill Americans.
All Other Obama
“Accomplishments” Are Only a Prelude to His $3.5 Trillion Budget
But all these successful expansions of government at home and
retractions of American leadership abroad are merely a prelude to
President Obama’s looming crowning achievement: His 2010 budget
which remakes our health care system, remakes our energy system,
raises taxes and forecasts an amazing $9 trillion increase in the
national debt.
As I write this, Democrats in Congress are fashioning a deal to pass
the budget’s provisions on health care by preventing Republicans and
moderate Democrats from having a voice in the debate.
Think about that. The Obama-Reid-Pelosi political machine is going
to pass legislation that fundamentally affects every single American
-- as well as 17 percent of our economy -- by cutting the elected
representatives of half of all Americans out of the process.
If they succeed, the budget will be President Obama’s most enduring
-- and devastating -- accomplishment.
Will the Future Bring Change We Can Believe In? Or a Change in What
we Believe?
One thing is clear at this point in President Obama’s presidency:
His control of Washington Democrats has been so masterful, and his
policies so successful, that he has officially claimed ownership of
the American economy.
Going forward, it won’t be possible to continue to place blame on
former President Bush and the Republicans. If President Obama fails,
it will be his failure and his alone.
As for us, the “success” of the first 100 days of the Obama
presidency raises a threatening possibility.
As my daughter and columnist Jackie Cushman
put it, if we’re not careful, instead of change
we can believe in, we’re going to have change in what we believe.
It’s something to ponder for the next 1,361 days.
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