Opinion: We're looking more like France - Frank J. Donatelli - POLITICO.com

We're looking more like France

By FRANK J. DONATELLI | 7/1/10 4:50 AM EDT

POLITICO 44

Republicans can barely contain their glee at their electoral prospects for this year.

There is reason for this optimism. The Obama administration’s poll numbers continue to sink, and history tells us that things could get worse before they get better. Republicans are poised to have one of our best elections ever in November.

But what the GOP will find if and when it wins one or two houses of Congress is not pretty.

President Barack Obama’s Democrats have set out to alter fundamentally the nature of the U.S. political system. The changes they’ve wrought will not be easily undone.

Obama has sought to remake America into a social democracy — like Germany or France — with a larger public sector, expanded entitlements, stronger labor unions and a changed political structure. He’s doing quite well so far.

Size of government. Are we really still a government of limited powers at the federal level? It’s hard to make that case.

The feds are running auto companies. They fired the General Motors board of directors and forced Chrysler bondholders into a settlement far less attractive than that given the United Auto Workers, strong allies of Obama.

The Bush administration devised the Troubled Asset Relief Program, but the Obama administration has extended it once already, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has proposed keeping the $700 billion open as a line of credit to fund expanded government programs.

Obama’s stimulus plan, combined with his amended 2009 budget and his 2010 and 2011 spending plans, have pushed annual deficits to more than $1 trillion per year.

Entitlement expansion. Obamacare has passed and is lurking in our federal and states’ budget futures. When the program is fully operational in 2014, federal spending for health care is expected to rise sharply. Many businesses could drop their coverage and force workers into the public “exchanges” created by the legislation. Millions more could be eligible for federal subsidies.

This adds up to millions more advocates for even more generous benefits and higher federal spending. Democratic politicians should be only too happy to oblige.

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