Another howler from E.J.Dionne

E.J.Dionne is out with another unintentionally funny piece. He starts out thusly:

"The 2010 election is turning into a class war. The wealthy and the powerful started it. This is a strange development. President Obama, after all, has been working overtime to save capitalism."

Where to begin? First, what are the big class warfare issues of this election? Tax increases are certainly big ones. The Republicans are against raising any taxes in the middle of a recession, while Obama and the obamacrats say that the rich do not pay enough. The Republicans make an economic argument while the Democrats counter with a class warfare argument.

A second issue is spending. Republicans want to reduce spending to keep the deficit to a more manageable number so as not to burden future generations with enormous debt. The Democrats want to keep on spending in order to spread the wealth around. Again, the Republicans make a class neutral argument while the Democrats counter with a class warfare argument.

A third issue is campaign spending. The Republicans favor equal laws for corporations, unions and other big contributors with regard to any limits on spending. Democrats are incensed and Dionne is particularly upset at the idea that corporations can spend amounts in the same way that unions can. Here too, Republicans argue for class neutral laws while the Democrats want class warfare laws.

I tried to think of a counter example where the Democrats were on the side that did not encourage class warfare, but I cannot think of even one example of this. There are issues that have no class impact -- a good example is abortion, but there seem to be none that go the other way.

In short, Dionne seems to have the story totally reversed.

Even funnier is Dionne's line that Obama has been working overtime to save capitalism. while the idea of Obama working overtime on anything other than his golf game is humorous, the concept of obama defending capitalism is good for ten minutes of laughter. Obama has done everything possible to undermine the capitalist system in the US. He nationalized banks and car companies. He nationalized the student loan business. He set up czars to oversee pay levels at banks and brokerages. He pushed for enormous increases in regulation for small businesses so that they became hesitant to hire new workers. He injected uncertainty into the tax and regulatory atmosphere which also stopped growth and hiring. He tried to take over one-sixth of the economy with obamacare. He threatens insurance companies if they act in the best interests of their shareholders. the list could go on for quite some time, but I will stop here. Let's just put it this way: I would like to hear from Dionne just one place where Obama has battled on the side of capitalism. It does not exist.

The strangest thing about the pieces from Dionne is that I think he is truly serious about what he says. Of course, none of what he is saying is accurate; indeed, it seems delusional. Nevertheless, it is always good for a laugh.