[THE] TOWERING ambitions of Mr. Obama's first two years have suddenly gone into abeyance in this third, apparently to be deferred until years five through eight. The White House is more or less conceding that it doesn't have a chance of winning a second term unless his major policies go on hiatus.
(Editorial, "The Obama Hiatus," Wall Street Journal (wsj.com), June 15, 2011)
Examples from the editorial: The Obama administration has:
Agreed to extend the Bush tax rates through the 2012 election.
Reduced the payroll tax on employees. (Obamacare raised the tax.)
Shouted loudly and waved its arms wildly about the need to eliminate "excessive" federal regulations. (Meanwhile the agencies continue to churn out ever more.)
Delayed for two months the EPA's new carbon regulations and yanked a proposed new rule to force thousands of businesses to install new boilers.
Delayed for six months the CFTC's new derivatives swaps rules under Dodd-Frank.
Granted 1,372 temporary waivers from Obamacare, including waivers for three states -- Nevada, New Hampshire, and Maine. Says the editorial:
This is less political favoritism than a panicked, ad hoc bid to minimize pre-election insurance disruptions that can be attributed to a law that is still widely reviled. If the law isn't enforced, maybe voters will forget it passed. . . .
By the way, this waiver process isn't in the law's statutory language. HHS has simply created it via [read through or by] regulation. In other words, the health bureaucracy knew the rules they were writing would be destructive and have created a political safety valve.
Overriden Obamacare's cuts to Medicare Advantage. (So much for the corresponding "savings" used to frame Obamacare as deficit reducer.)
The editorial concludes:
Why aren't liberals deploring this betrayal of their programs? Perhaps because even they can't ignore reality forever. Mr. Obama's epic fiscal binge, waves of new industrial policy and the political allocation of credit haven't created the boom they promised. If business can now be persuaded that the government assault is over and start to invest again so the economy improves enough for Mr. Obama to win a second term, then a two-year delay in fulfilling their dreams is well worth it.
Liberals figure that as long as Mr. Obama can be re-elected next year on another hope-and-change platform, it will be too late to hope to change anything and he can then return to his legacy project of building a tax and entitlement state on the European model. . . .
PREVIEW of tomorrow's posting: Mr. Obama may be losing on the politics, but he's still winning on policy.
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