Paulson: Central Planning and a "Blank Check"

Remember all of that talk about not wanting to give Hank Paulson a "blank check" in that farce of a debate (since the wrong issues were debated in an unnecessary panic--see two previous entries)?

Well, is it not clear that Paulson wanted a "blank check", and that Congress gave him one? I think it is. In fact, this is what usually happens in our present "system". The actual governing is left in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, or the President, with Congressional bills so complex and vague that no one even knows what they mean.

This is "central planning" in its most naked form. It is Paulson alone who is now running our economy, along with Bernanke. To all intents and purposes, we are in a dictatorship on the economy. And Wall Street is telling Paulson and Bernanke what to do, in large part. In other words, the people who failed have been made rulers of our economy, using fear to put themselves in that position.

Did Hitler do it very differently? I don't think so, which raises the issue of whether we are as far away from the possibility of an American Hitler or Stalin as we like to think. The more likely present danger is from the left--maybe even Obama. But a catastrophic failure on the left could give rise to a demagogue on the right (nope, not an ordinary conservative like Sarah Palin, who the left would wrongly regard as such a demagogue for merely asserting values that most of us once shared, but a real fear mongering demagogue of the right).

Yes, the assertion of power on the left could easily be used to justify countervailing power on the right, just as Hitler used the Communists (and Jews) as scapegoats. The left is already trying to justify their power grabs by overstatement of a similar idea as to Bush/Republican past power grabs.

The key evil here is central planning, and looking to a "savior" to solve all of our problems in "Big Brother" style. Obama has invoked way too much of this Messiah" mentality previously invoked by Hitler, and other demagogues.

I don't trust Paulson with complete control of this economy. I trust no person with that kind of control. Yet, we seem to be bent on turning over control of our lives to a central planner or planners in Washington. In the end, if unchecked, this will destroy us.

Talk about a "blank check"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Notice (see previous entries this week) that the primary present Democratic complaint is that Paulson will not use his "blank check" to bail out the auto industry. There is no apparent worry, anymore, about the idea of giving a single man, or a few men, a "blank check".