Strassel: The Silent Second-Term Agenda

WSJ ^ | 8-23-12 | Kimberely A. Strassel

[Dysart]

BREAK

The president has to date been unconcerned by how his agenda hurts congressional Democrats; he's unlikely to begin caring once he has been re-elected.

Yet since the probable outcome of his approach would be continued gridlock, his real efforts will be devoted to fine-tuning the regulatory apparatus he has designed specifically to go around Congress—as the administration has done the past two years. The Environmental Protection Agency in particular will resurrect rules it delayed implementing before the election (see: costly ozone regulations) and move to take over new areas like natural-gas fracking.

The same goes for other agencies, from the Labor Department to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The National Labor Relations Board will continue to cement union dominance over employers. The Solyndras will continue. What Mr. Obama cannot accomplish via regulation, he will attempt through executive order—much as he did with his recent immigration directive.

Most voters understand that a second Obama term means the continuation of ObamaCare and the Dodd-Frank financial regulations. But there is also the carte blanche that re-election will give the president to supercharge those laws, which are only now entering key rulemaking periods. The same Obama appointees who have already taken vast liberties with these laws (see: HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's ObamaCare slush fund) will be crafting the new regulations. The bureaucrats will also have four more years to put in place key civil servants who can be counted on to keep the rules going even past an Obama administration.

It is likely the Supreme Court will offer up another vacancy, and Mr. Obama might finally have his chance to shift the balance of the court.

[Dysart]

Excellent, short opinion by Strassel, and food for thought if you're fretting about Romney's questionable conservative bona fides. She squarely frames the stark choice between a supercharged Obama—unconcerned about political ramifications, for himself or his party— and Mitt Romney. All the rest, and it's abundant, is so much sound and fury, signifying nothing. Ryan-Romney needs to hammer Obama on his diabolical plans starting last month and keep pounding until D-Day.

Obama Must Git!

[P.O.E.]

Obama term means the continuation of ObamaCare

Worse than a continuation - the real pincers of the plan won't kick in for another year or two.

[muwarriors92]

Reparations.

Watch, he will try to get this done in a second term.

[PGalt]

Excellent, short opinion by Strassel...

BUMP!

DEPOPULATE socialists and UNaccountable bureaucrats (more socialists) from the body politic. DISMANTLE their bureaucracies. BIG GOVERNMENT IS CRONY SOCIALISM.

Socialism Is Legal Plunder - "The Law"; Frederic Bastiat 1801-1850

[Dysart]

There you go: I’ll say it gain- socialism IS legal plunder. Was reading a thread here and came across a reply by someone who was recounting his drive through and around D.C., the belly of the beast. He wrote of the opulence provided by corruption and through the plunder of private citizens’ assets. Obama seeks to accelerate the process and distribute the booty among his cronies even as he shares the bulk of it with other less fortunate nations. It’s only fair, dontchaknow.

[Verginius Rufus]

She leaves out one of the most important goals of a second Obama term: continuation and intensification of his war on the freedom of religion.

[Dysart]

Well, I think he gives wide berth to some faiths, even placing minority religions in a privileged position to Non-Judeo-Christian religions, because they further his greater goal of annihilating our culture. (See his perpetual bowing to islam). I think, for him, that is the prize.