October 17th, 2008 | 
Author: If Obama becomes president on November 4th there will be a ‘liberal supermajority’ and the Democrats will consolidate their Congressional majorities which in turn would mean an almost filibuster-proof Senate.
Without the ability to filibuster, the Senate will become similar to the House and be able to pass whatever the majority wants and it would be one of the most profound political and ideological shifts in America since 1965 or perhaps even 1933.
Liberals, some of whom are on the extreme left of the spectrum would dominate the entire government and the election would mark the restoration of the activist government that fell out of public favor in the 1970s.
It is highly unlikely that most Americans fully understand how radical a change there would be but the following is a list of bills that passed the House this year or last before that were ultimately stopped by the Senate minority.
Prescription drug price controls, Union card check, Representation for the District of Columbia, Renegotiate mortgage contracts in bankruptcy, Eliminate statute of limitations on workplace discrimination suits, Bar funding for the Iraq war and Windfall profits tax on oil companies.
It is important to keep in mind that a filibuster is intended to shape legislation and not simply block it.
Mr. Obama intends to create a public insurance program, modeled after Medicare and open to everyone of any income and we all know how successful Medicare has been.
The Lewin Group, which is the gold standard of health policy analysis says the Obama plan would shift between 32 million and 52 million people from private coverage to the huge new entitlement program and like Medicare and the Canadian system there would be no possibility of repealing it and taxes would have to be raised to support it.
The countries entire financial industry will get a revamp but, telecom, biotech and drug makers can expect to be investigated and they’ll face new and far more burdensome rules. They’ll most likely be a windfall profits tax on oil and other industries with the danger being that the Democrats will cause the present economic crisis to last far longer than it otherwise would have.
Unions have been in decline for decades and members now represent only 7.4% of the private-sector work force, so one program that’s certain to be given the green light as early as possible will be the “card check” meaning that there will be no more secret-ballot elections. The “Employee Free Choice Act” would enable stewards to convert workplaces into union shops simply by gathering signatures from a majority of employees and anybody opposing the change would be targeted.
Taxes will rise significantly because Mr. Obama wants to raise the top income, dividend and capital-gains rates for the so called rich, thereby considerably increasing the cost of new investment in the U.S.
Perhaps even more radically he wants to eliminate the cap on income subject to payroll taxes which presently funds Medicare and Social Security thereby converting what was intended to be a pension insurance program into an explicit income redistribution program.
A tax-and-regulation scheme in the name of climate change is also a top left-wing priority and it would hand Congress trillions of dollars in new spending from the auction of carbon credits and millions of jobs and billions of dollars would then be at the mercy of a vast new global-warming bureaucracy.
The District of Columbia which is Democrat would get votes in Congress and national, election-day voter registration would be implemented which is something that has been a long-term goal of Acorn and others on the “community organizer” left. This would make it far easier to stack the voter rolls which would effectively ensure Democratic rule for many years to come.
Felons would likely get the right to vote nationwide but talk radio and other voices of political opposition would be shut down.
There would be an end to military commissions which would probably mean the trying of terrorists in civilian courts and Google and MoveOn.org would get “net neutrality” rules, effectively subjecting the Internet to intrusive regulation for the first time.
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Posted in Campaign, economy, government, Obama, politics, presidential elections | 
Tags: economy, government, Obama, politics, presidential elections
