Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wonders how many of you might have read Pete DuPont’s article in the Wall Street Journal two days ago. It was linked on a number of big sites. Your Maximum Leader started a post about it, but didn’t publish it. He’s decided to just link the piece and give a taste.

The Europeanization of America by Pete DuPont from the Wall Street Journal.
So where is the new Obama administration likely to take us? Seven things seem certain:

- The U.S. military will withdraw from Iraq quickly and substantially, regardless of conditions on the ground or the obvious consequence of emboldening terrorists there and around the globe.

- Protectionism will become our national trade policy; free trade agreements with other nations will be reduced and limited.

- Income taxes will rise on middle- and upper-income people and businesses, and individuals will pay much higher Social Security taxes, all to carry out the new president’s goals of “spreading the wealth around.”

- Federal government spending will substantially increase. The new Obama proposals come to more than $300 billion annually, for education, health care, energy, environmental and many other programs, in addition to whatever is needed to meet our economic challenges. Mr. Obama proposes more than a 10% annual spending growth increase, considerably higher than under the first President Bush (6.7%), Bill Clinton (3.3%) or George W. Bush (6.4%).

- Federal regulation of the economy will expand, on everything from financial management companies to electricity generation and personal energy use.

- The power of labor unions will substantially increase, beginning with repeal of secret ballot voting to decide on union representation.

- Free speech will be curtailed through the reimposition of the Fairness Doctrine to limit the conservative talk radio that so irritates the liberal establishment.

Your Maximum Leader will point out that bullet point about Federal Spending increasing. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t give Bill Clinton and the Republican Congress quite enough credit for holding down the growth of the Federal budget. Consider this credit. Alas, what that point shows it that if Obama was to become President (which is likely now) we really really need a responsible Republican Congress to act as a counter-balance. Sadly, that is not in the cards either.

Carry on.