We All Live In A Banana Republic Now!

As I balanced my distate for Barack Obama during the election season with the sinking knowledge that he would be elected president, I still thought, "OK, he may be a socialist horror show, but there's no way he can wreck this republic within four years. Our foundation is too strong".

Boy, was I wrong about that. It took him just over 110 days to turn this once-great nation into an oversized Third-World banana republic. The bullying of private investors and the subversion of the rule of law in the Chrysler proceedings were bad enough, but nobody can willingly accept a government deficit this high without the full intention of destroying the standard of living of everyone subject to it. And this is before Obama nationalizes health care.

At least the AP pulls no punches:

With the economy performing worse than hoped, revised White House figures point to deepening budget deficits, with the government borrowing almost 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year.

The deficit for the current budget year will rise by $89 billion to above $1.8 trillion -- about four times the record set just last year. The unprecedented red ink flows from the deep recession, the Wall Street bailout, the cost of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus bill, as well as a structural imbalance between what the government spends and what it takes in.
.. The deterioration reflects lower tax revenues and higher costs for bank failures, unemployment benefits and food stamps.

And the budget is dealt with honestly as well:

Obama's budget remains a bold but contentious document that proposes higher taxes for the wealthy, a hotly contested effort to combat global warming and the first steps toward guaranteed health care for all...

Annual deficits would never dip below $500 billion and would total $7.1 trillion over 2010-2019. Even those dismal figures rely on economic projections that are significantly more optimistic -- just a 1.2 percent decline in gross domestic product this year and a 3.2 percent growth rate for 2010 -- than those forecast by private sector economists and the Congressional Budget Office.

And check out these tidbits:

....the congressional budget plan approved last month would not extend Obama's signature $400 tax credit for most workers -- $800 for couples -- after it expires at the end of next year.

Guess Obama can't chirp about lowering taxes, especially after this goes down:

Obama's remarkably controversial "cap-and-trade" proposal to curb heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions is also reeling from opposition from Capitol Hill Democrats from coal-producing regions and states with concentrations of heavy industry. Under cap-and-trade, the government would auction permits to emit heat-trapping gases, with the costs being passed on to consumers via higher gasoline and electric bills.

Huge deficits causing inflationary monetary policies for a nation with massive unemployment is a recipe for economic destruction. Higher energy costs and rising food prices (gotta have that ethanol!) will leave Americans hungry, and in the dark (just like in the Third World). America's children will have no hope save for civil service, and our leadership position in the world will fade away, like so much dust in the wind.

While many books will be written about the "fall of the American Empire", how many will speak this truth: It was one man, and a party and media that supported him, that destroyed over 200 years of amazing progress.

Where will we all be in four years? In Haiti? In Obama's dreams...