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The right wing keeps things in perspective

Well, it’s good to see that the folks on Right Wing Avenue — the folks whose “think tanks” and corporate lobby brigade have had our government under their collective thumb for decades — are at least keeping things in perspective when it comes to the re-election of the President.

Here’s the “Director of Regulatory Studies” at the Locke Foundation in a post entitled “They broke it, we bought it [1]“:

> Caveat emptor. That’s a Latin expression for “Let the buyer beware,” which could also be expressed as “We broke it; you bought it.” And _that_ sounds like the winning message of the 2012 presidential campaign.
> 
> What’s broken is rather self-evident at this point, though the winning side is pleased we accept it as (euphemism alert) the “new normal” and their lickspittle media pretend to find it lovely this time. But what did we buy? Among our dear-bought prizes:
> 
>   * **A crippling gut-stomp of federal regulations**  
>  The Environmental Protection Agency has been waiting till after Election Day to release thousands of new environmental regulations. Regardless of how one terms the coming onslaught — is it a tidal wave or a train wreck? — the pending crush of over 4,100 regulations will cost the U.S. economy, which one may remember is still struggling to recover, over $500 billion. In other words, the EPA is poised to consign half a trillion dollars’ worth of economic activity to deadweight loss. We bought that.
>   * **Taxmaggedon and the Fiscal Cliff**  
>  Our national choice to stay the course, _this_ course, has a Thelma & Louise/Wile E. Coyote flair to it. The fiscal cliff fast approaches, which will cost the U.S. economy, which one may remember is still struggling to recover, an estimated $800 billion. Meanwhile, Taxmaggedon is poised to erupt at the same time, taking out 3-5 percent of GDP right when, as one may remember, the U.S. economy is still struggling to recover. The Tax Foundation, much like Accuweather did for Hurricane Sandy, has put together a handy primer for understanding what is coming, this fiscal disaster. We bought that, too.
>   * **The still-unfathomed depths of Obamacare taxes and regulations**  
>  How many pages of regulations does the federal government require to micromanage one-sixth of the U.S. economy? So far, tens of thousands, due to arrive in January while, as one may remember, the U.S. economy still struggles to recover. The latest estimate of the cost of Obamacare taxes to the U.S. economy, which one may remember is still struggling to recover, is more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years. The legislation, which was first pushed as a government-compassion kind of way to address the fact that poor people struggle to afford health insurance, contains a special “penalty tax” for those who disobey the Obamacare dictate that they buy health insurance (that is, for poor people who decide they can’t afford health insurance). That tax would affect an estimated 6 million low- and middle-income Americans, depriving them of up to 10 percent of their paltry incomes as they, along with the U.S. economy, struggle to recover. We bought all that.
> 


And on and on it goes like this. Good lord, one can only imagine what these people would do and say if the Obama administration ever really did get around to pursuing a truly progressive agenda. 

Happily, one thing that posts like this do accomplish is to remind progressives that they are in a pitched battle. The national election may have turned out for the best, but don’t have any illusion that this is going to curb the far right; if anything expect more of this kind of extreme, apocalyptic blather until these people become such a small minority that they’re relegated back to the margins with the Birchers and Birthers where they belong.

Article printed from The Progressive Pulse: **http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org**

URL to article: **http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2012/11/13/the-right-wing-keeps-things-in-perspective/**

URLs in this post:

[1] a post entitled “They broke it, we bought it: **http://johnlocke.org/newsletters/research/2012-11-12-bdva1k088vu7jpi6ffck56pus2-regulation-update.html**