Like Reagan said, just consume it
In the United States, we are one week away from big changes… and the midterm elections are only part of what is coming.
It’s deja-vu all over again as the Democratic Party, consumed by the ambitions of its more liberal elements, has overreached toward socialism in a way not seen since the first two years of the Clinton administration. The “Republican Revolution” of 1994 was the result back then, when the Republican Party won a modern record 52 seats and seized control of the House of Representatives. To save her political life, Clinton “turned” to the center-right policies favored by the majority of the nation and worked with the new Republican congress to achieve enough (particularly welfare reform) to win re-election in 1996. .
President Obama has tilted the country so far to the left that he has made Clinton look like a Republican. Experts now say the Republican Party is likely to seize control of the House of Representatives in a similar way to the 1994 “revolution” spurred by movements of the Tea Party electorate. But this time, Obama isn’t promising anything like Clinton’s pivotal move. In any case, Obama appears to be on the verge of “doubling down” on the kind of far-left initiatives that angered the public and gave rise to the Tea Party movement more than a year ago.
I worry about the damage the outgoing Democratic congress may cause during its lame duck session between next week’s election and its departure in January. Don’t be surprised to see them try to impose a cap-and-tax “energy bill” for Obama’s hasty signature, similar to the way the unpopular Obamacare healthcare bill was foisted on a disapproving nation. New legislators will be able to try to undo any damage done (and many candidates are leading their races, at least in part, because they have promised to help roll back Obamacare). But with the kind of slim majority the GOP is likely to enjoy (and likely won’t include a majority in the Senate), Obama will be able to easily veto his new efforts without the threat of congressional override.
So “cap and tax” could be our reality, at least for a couple of years. If the socialists currently in power can add the government’s takeover of the energy industry to their takeovers of healthcare, manufacturing (such as cars), and finance, it could be difficult or impossible to reverse the transformation of United States of a free market republic. to “state capitalism” – which is the current politically correct term for socialism.
And don’t count on any extension of the “Bush tax cuts” of 2001 and 2003. That means that, as a parting gift to voters who will have rejected them, the Lib Dems will essentially be able to leave us with the biggest tax increase in the history of our nation. That will further cripple the private sector (which is undoubtedly the intention of the liberals) and make the return to a free market (and corresponding free society) an even more uphill climb.
That all sounds pretty bad, to be sure. But on the heels of Tuesday’s historic election, sure to anger the ruling class elite in government, the Federal Reserve will announce the extent to which it will apply “quantitative easing.” QE is another politically correct term, this one a substitute for “money printing.” In other words, the Fed is ready to buy massive amounts of its own debt with “fun money” it creates out of thin air. This is probably the biggest danger of all. “Quantitative easing” could lead to the kind of hyperinflation not seen since the days before World War II in Germany.
Have you heard the stories of the hyperinflation of the Deutschmark back then? The most famous is that of a woman who loads a wheelbarrow with almost worthless paper money to go to town to buy bread. She enters the store to make her selection among the loaves of billions of marks and, when she comes out of it, she discovers that she has been robbed. Oh, the billion German marks of hers were still there, piled up on the sidewalk. The wheelbarrow, worth more than the money she was carrying, had been stolen.
So instead, next week’s government moves could make the Halloween that follows seem as scary as the fluffiest Easter.
What can you do about it?
As a vote, he’s doing all he can if he casts his ballot the way pundits say most will next week: kick out socialist bums and give conservative lawmakers a chance. If they’re determined, our new representatives could do a lot of good… but what’s to stop them from drinking the Washington kool-aid that has poisoned generations of legislators before them? Things look promising in that regard, but I wouldn’t wait to find out. Start a business, so you have an income stream you can rely on when layoffs start at your day job. Keep an eye on your personal health: Don’t trust your vitality to new government health care, which is likely to put high-quality health care in the history books. And be smart NOW about what to do to protect and grow your wealth. These terrifying changes are likely to create something like a worldwide depression, during which most will go bankrupt but a few will get rich.
I firmly believe that it is still possible to protect yourself against the coming storm… but now is the time to prepare.
by Michael D. Hume, M.S.