George Bush is America's Reverse-Gorbachev

By Richard Geno

In the late 1980's, Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to move the Soviet Union away from totalitarian Communism to a more open society. His attempts at reform contributed to the end of the political supremacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Conversely, the American Politburo and President George W. Bush are moving the United States towards a more totalitarian system. Instead of perestroika and glasnost, the watchwords for the United States government are bailout and government takeovers.

In the Soviet Union, perestoika meant overcoming the stagnation process, breaking down the braking mechanism, creating a dependable and effective mechanism for acceleration of social and economic progress, and providing greater dynamism. In 2008, the American Politburo and President George W. Bush have provided us a reverse-perestroika - the tools for economic regression and stagnation.

The Bush Administration has set the stage for all-out government control of the financial markets. Much like in Communist China, the American government is becoming "partners" with financial institutions - banks, insurance companies and investment banking firms. As Thomas Jefferson so presciently warned over 200 years ago, "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." Perhaps he foresaw institutions like the Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

We have already witnessed $850 billion in bailout money committed from the federal government, and the estimates for future bailouts recommended by the new administration are approaching $700 billion. Before the economy truly hit the skids, we already had record deficits that were approaching a half trillion dollars. With reduced government revenues due to the slowdown in the economy and the astronomical bailouts, deficits will be approaching a trillion dollars annually before long. Just eight years ago, we had a balanced budget.

There is no question we needed "change" from the government-gone-wild spending of recent years; but we have voted to make the change in the wrong direction. We needed to trim the runaway government spending, and we now have an administration-in-waiting that wants to substantially increase government spending.

For the first time in fifty years, the Democrats talked about how terrible deficits were during the Bush years. Now that they are about to have total control, deficits already do not matter. Barney Frank, the powerful chair of the financial services committee, said recently, "I think at this point, there needs to be an immediate increase in spending, and I think this is a time when deficit fear has to take a second seat." Frank also is one of the leaders of the "tax-the-rich" scheme. He is one of the architects of this financial collapse, and now he wants to make sure that the collapse is complete by confiscating the capital that would correct it.

Rather than stand firm on the radical nature of bailouts and government takeovers, President Bush and his cohorts led the way, and provided a strong precedent for virtually any government spending that the next administration might want to attempt. As the standard bearer for the Republican Party for eight years, how can his party argue against such wild spending when the Republican president and the Republican Congress set new records for government spending and deficits. The stage is now set for the Obama administration to use the government in a pro-active way for their pet projects - universal health care, increased welfare, and alternative energy.

Ever since the Roosevelt years in the 1930's, we have been a combination of capitalism and socialism. The Lyndon Johnson administration in the 1960's moved us closer to the socialistic side with the Great Society. George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" moved us ever closer to the edge. Now with the "government first" leaders waiting at the front door, it is hard to imagine us not reaching the tipping point in the next few years. Combine that with the world's enchantment with our new "citizen of the world" president-elect, the European dream of world socialism is right around the corner. As we try to slow down this runaway train, remember that it was a Republican president and a Republican congress that paved the way.