Generally speaking the first 100 days of a new President setting the political agenda within the US, tends to be defining in terms of what the years in office are going to be like and what developments can be expected. Sadly TB doesn't have the resources of Adam Boulton
and the backing of Sky to be in Washington to report on the passing of this landmark. Instead he has called upon the services of Daniel Ericsson who is a bit of an expert on all things stateside. He ran the British Republican blog during the American elections and just finished writing his dissertation on Mitt Romney. He is the former Chairman of Exeter University Conservative Future.100 Days since I was sat bleary eyed at some awful hour of the morning, sighing and wondering vaguely why I’d stayed up to watch a result I was 99% certain was going to happen. A quick sigh that the McCain camp was over, and a quick reflection of “Well, at least it wasn’t Hilary!” I thought that Obama would be the kind of Democrat that I could tolerate (a little like Bill Clinton when he was passing long-term Republican objectives like NAFTA and making progress with the free trade agenda) – his magnificent oratory skills giving him a rare chance to control the political agenda whilst enjoying popular support.
Oops.
As TB covered, George Osborne noted the death of New Labour earlier this week. Elsewhere in the graveyard however lies another small headstone. It’s not ornate and not many people tend to it but that’s precisely what it wants. If you look at the inscription on the headstone it reads “US Small Government, 1981-2009. I was killed by my big brother!” I’m not sure if the funeral was private, but Reagan would undoubtedly be crying somewhere. Regrettably it is this which I as a classical liberal which I cannot forgive Obama for being complicit in. He started out well – I was pleased with the closure of Guantanamo, as whilst it raised a number of practical points it represented the dark side of the Bush years and the War on Terror – the uncomfortable fact that America’s moral high ground was shaky.
Then however the attention turned to the economy and Obama’s budget. What Obama inherited actually bears a lot of parallels to what Reagan took over in 1981. An economy suffering rapidly as unemployment begins to spiral out of control on one hand whilst inflation remains a concern over the other. A necessity to continue high levels of spending on achieving military objectives, balanced against other needs. It’s the action the two men took which separates them.
Now generally speaking the Government does have to undertake deficit financing (use some money to deal with the immediate problem, then pay it off when times are better to combat a recession.) The smart ones save up to ride out the bad times without too much long term damage, the fools tell themselves and others that they’ve abolished boom and bust and celebrate with the cheque book (now who could that be?) Reagan ran up a sizable deficit but it was mainly unplanned with unfortunate world economic conditions running against him, but he counterbalanced with trimming Government and stopped a bad situation becoming terrible, leading to some great years of growth. Obama has a wild spending spree and expansion of the public sector planned far beyond even the worst predictions of the Reagan possibility, and let us not forget that with Obama, it’s purposeful. Be under no illusion, the Obama plan will lead to recovery in the short(ish) term, but only by sacrificing a heck of a more in the long term. His next planned issue, the American Health Care system does need fixed with its shocking gaps in coverage, but going bankrupt through attempting to push through an ideological approach without the money is a recipe for disaster.
There are precious few times that I’ve felt proud to be a US Republican in the last few years. When the party stood together and attempted to block this budget though, I really was so proud. It may be a fairly dull bunch of numbers at its core, but Obama’s budget represents his first 100 days and a key change in US philosophy. So I ask you to take a quick moment out of your day, and take a moment of silence to mark the tragic passing of Small Government.
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