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Administration Of False Alternatives |
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Conservative Compass Blog
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Written by Bob Sordahl
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Sunday, 29 March 2009 |
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The Obama Presidency is not yet three months old, and already it is characterizing itself as an administration of false alternatives. The fallacy of false alternatives is an approach to problems that insists upon a single minded solution, ignoring the fact that many other possibilities may be available and may in fact, be more effective. Time and time again as our Country takes on crisis after crisis (real or manufactured), this administration has brought forward agenda driven schemes and presented them to the public while asserting that the only other alternative is to “do nothing”.
This technique is brilliant because it is easy to criticize “doing nothing” as obstructionist, more of the same or unenlightened. When dealing with a public that is distracted, exhausted or afraid, the approach works well, and allows those in power to do almost as they please with little or no resistance. If however the public is thoughtful and vigilant, this administration’s tactic would fall flat and be exposed for the thinly veiled ideology that it is. I would like to offer a few examples of viable alternatives to what Congress and President Obama have or will soon force upon the American people. 1. The trillion plus stimulus bill, that will endow Federal programs and departments with huge sums of money in the guise of saving or creating jobs, and getting our economy moving again. The stimulus package was passed against the backdrop of Obama claiming that the alternative to this bill, was to do nothing. Certainly doing nothing was one option, and we might well argue the best, but it was not the only approach to our current economic woes. Mark Hemstreet the CEO of Shilo Inns for example, has suggested a mortgage holiday, that would allow American home buyers to pocket a full year of mortgage payments to spend or save as they wish. The Government would do it’s part by paying the interest on those loans for the year. This plan would inject some instant buying power into the economy, and even if the Libs still sent their welfare tax credits to all Americans, we would come out ahead by committing ourselves to far less debt than obligated by the bill which the President and Congress signed into law.
2. Card Check legislation that gives unions far too much leverage to organize workers in American businesses. In the past, there have been management abuses to be sure, but to allow people to be put on the spot at their place of employment, and lose the secret ballot requirement, it seems to me will not benefit workers at all. In fact, it will eliminate jobs by forcing businesses to close and cost workers more of their pay as it is given in the form of dues to union bosses to spend as they see fit. In addition, the proposed Government arbitration of wages and benefits amounts to onerous intrusion into the free market place. Government arbitration will at best cause a disconnect between wages and reality, and at worst a virtual nationalization of private companies. The Government could tighten up regulations regarding management’s dealing with legitimately organized workers without trampling the rights of those who don’t wish to unionize. It seems logical that a bill could be crafted that addresses recognized problems in the workplace without swinging the pendulum to it’s far left extreme to the detriment of labor and management alike.
3. The AIG bonus fiasco. Congress after discovering that they probably couldn’t legally take the bonuses back from AIG executives decided to use our tax code to punish them for daring to expect that the terms of their employment contracts be met. This of course was done with the blessing of the President and Treasury. A better approach might have been to put the bonus funds into escrow to be distributed only after AIG repaid its federal bail out money. That would protect the taxpayer’s interests without cheating the executives or gutting the foundations of our contract law.
4. In the case of mortgage bail outs for home buyers in default, our Government seems once again more than willing to trash contract law by forcing re-negotiation of loans. In addition, they are proposing that courts be allowed to reset mortgage principle based upon the house’s current value. All of this of course would be done at the expense of honest hard working taxpayers who did not try to buy a home beyond their means. This approach ignores the real possibility of a secondary default because it does nothing to address the pattern of poor decision making that got many of these people into trouble in the first place. We would once again be loaning money to people who are no more qualified for this new mortgage than they were for their first. Does that sound familiar? Our Government would serve people about to lose their homes better by offering assistance in finding and moving to a rental house or apartment that they could successfully afford. Zero down, interest only home buyers never really owned the home anyway, they were merely renting it.
Our Government does its best to convince us that there is only one way to deal with our current financial and social issues. Any thinking individual knows that is not the case and we must stand up and say so. President Obama made it clear in January when during a meeting with Republican leaders he justified his proposals by saying “I won”. He doesn’t intend to entertain any solutions other than the one he has chosen, or that Congress has chosen for him. If this administration continues to use the fallacy of false alternates argument for all issues during the next four years, there will be only two paths: Obama’s, and the one he tells us won’t work. This may make it extremely difficult for the opposition to do the right thing in spite of mindless public pressure or uninformed outcry. Often they will be in a position of voting in a way that our President has told the American people, can only bring failure. Now more than ever there is a need for resolve and integrity on the Right. I sincerely hope we are up to it.
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