Fund: GOP Can Still Stop Obama’s Radical Liberal Agenda
Thursday, March 12, 2009 2:53 PM
By: Jim Meyers
Obama “is going to double the public debt in less than five years,” says conservative author John Fund. “He is going to triple it in 10 years. This is a disaster if it passes.”
Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund tells Newsmax that President Barack Obama’s fiscal policies will lead to “disaster” — but insists that Republicans still have a chance to defeat a good deal of his agenda.
Fund cited two examples from recent history when Republicans were able to stop a Democratic president and Congress from implementing a “radical liberal agenda.”
Newsmax TV’s Ashley Martella observed that conservatives face a “nightmare” these days with Obama’s tax-and-spend policy, and asked Fund what is the most egregious part of it.
“Potential nightmare — it only becomes real if it passes into law and is signed by the president. I think there is a real chance of stopping much of it,” said Fund, author of the book “Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy.”
“He is going to double the public debt in less than five years. He is going to triple it in 10 years. This is a disaster if it passes.
“But there is a way out of this. In 1977, Jimmy Carter came in with a very ambitious liberal agenda. He campaigned as a moderate, but he governed from the left almost immediately because his congressional leadership and his special interests, especially the unions, demanded he govern from the left.
“The public reacted. He started losing special elections. In late ’77 the Democrats lost the Virginia governorship. After that Carter’s program basically ground to a halt.
“Then in ’78 there was a humiliating defeat in the midterm elections. Carter policies turned very badly — 12 percent inflation, 21 percent interest rates, 9 percent unemployment. And then of course came Ronald Reagan.
“In ’93, Clinton — [after] campaigning as a moderate — comes into office and immediately starts governing from the left. What happens? He starts losing special elections. Then the Republicans come back. They win the New Jersey governorship on a supply side tax-cutting platform. George Allen wins the Virginia governorship. Nothing of significance passed the Democratic Congress after November 1993 following those off-year election losses.
“Well here we go again, perhaps. On March 31 there is a special election in New York’s 20th congressional district. This is the vacancy created by Kirsten Gillibrand being appointed to Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. A Democratic-held district. A district that voted for Obama.
“The Republican candidate, though, is very strong — minority leader of the state assembly Jim Tedisco. The Democratic candidate is a self-funded millionaire but he has all kinds of problems because he is a first-time, inexperienced candidate.
“The latest independent polls show the Republican 14 points ahead. If the Republicans win that seat on March 31 — perhaps they win it in a landslide — that will be the first public referendum on the Obama administration."
Fund also pointed to November gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey where potential Republican candidates are leading in the polls.
“If Republicans repeat their success of ’93 and win both the Virginia and New Jersey governorships, we may see an enormous amount of nervousness in the Democratic Congress about passing things like the cap-and-tax global warming tax, which violates Obama’s pledge that he wouldn’t raise taxes for anyone under $250,000,” Fund said. “This raises taxes for anyone who drives or turns on a light switch.”
Democrats have reason to be nervous because 46 of them sit in House districts that John McCain won, and 80 sit in districts that George W. Bush carried in 2004, Fund noted.
“They are nervous. They know that if Republicans start racking up special election victories like they did in ‘77 and ’93, they can see they might be heading toward a very bad year. They will be very loathe to take political risks.
“So the message here is, of course it’s a potential nightmare. There’s also a potential political opportunity because twice before we have defeated radical liberal Democratic agendas when they were pursued with a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president.”
Asked if he believes Republicans could take control of the House in 2010, Fund said that would not be necessary.
What’s important is that Republicans “scare the Democrats into recognizing that the political consequences of moving too far to the left will be very detrimental to them.”
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