American Elephants

I was still giggling over Nancy Pelosi’s comment on Progressive Health Care: “We will have a cap on costs,  and we will have no cap on benefits, ” when I learned that in Michigan, suffering from some of the highest unemployment  in the country, State Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer wants to test support for potential ballot initiatives that will:

“give voters the chance to circumvent recalcitrant politicians in Lansing, he said, demonstrating that Democrats are “on the side of the people.”

The brilliant ideas they are proposing consider:

• Hiking the minimum wage to $10 an hour for all workers.
• Cutting utility rates 20% across the board.
• Imposing a blanket moratorium on home foreclosures for 12 months.
• Requiring all employers to provide health care to their employees.
• Hiking, by $100 a week, and extending, for 6 months, unemployment benefits.

Raising the minimum wage will increase the unemployment rate.  Cutting utility rates will cripple Michigan power companies.  Mandating health insurance should shut down any small businesses who were considering staying in Michigan, and no small employer would consider relocating to Michigan. Remaining would be the Democrats and the unemployed, but who would pay for their additional unemployment benefits remains a mystery.

Then Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm has mandated that 20 percent of the state’s power come from renewable resources — and now she wants utilities to cut consumer rates by 20 percent. Yes, she wants utilities to provide more costly power, and cap the prices that customers pay for it.

Last year, Barack Obama named Ms. Granholm to his 17-member economic advisory board.  According to Edward John Craig, she seems to still be active in that role.  At least the climate bill, the budget, the stimulus and the health care reform agenda would seem to indicate that she is.

I knew that Democrats don’t much like the free market, nor do they understand it.  They are deeply suspicious of the profit motive, and antagonistic to business.

That is why we have a stimulus bill that is going to wait a year or two to attempt to stimulate.  That is why, in spite of warnings that fiscal stimulus seldom works, they were sure that more money would make it work.  That is why they are quite sure that dumping large amounts of federal funds into wind turbines and solar panels to produce “clean” electricity will somehow reduce our dependence on foreign oil; and by making the cost of energy far more expensive will somehow create more jobs.  And as Nancy Pelosi claims, by capping costs and making all health care benefits available to millions more people, we will save money.

It seems that we have all stumbled down the rabbit hole, and are lost in a make-believe world.