Obama's Change Reckoning is Here

The first ten days of the new administration have really put into stark relief the conservative warnings of Barack Obama during the second half of 2008. Even some of the most extreme ideological attacks on Obama are now ringing true as we see the beginnings of a new era of American politics that's nothing short of a wholesale statist makeover of American life. As Charles Hurt says of the adminstration's $819 spending boondoggle, and the law's provision to roll back two decades of welfare reform:

Ever since his election, many Americans have wondered which Barack Obama would show up at the White House: the most liberal member of the Senate or the post-partisan bearer of change we could all believe in.

One thing is clear: His "stimulus" bill is not change we can believe in. It's a return to big-government welfare that we will choke on.

What's especially troubling is that the Democrats are going to ram down "change" on the country by reign of deception and non-debate. I noted this morning that the left's "family planning" agenda is backed by lies, and as Kimberley Strassel points out today, we're moving toward socialism by stealth in the nationalization of health care:

With the nation occupied with the financial crisis, and with that crisis providing cover, Democrats have been passing provision after provision to nationalize health care.

If Democrats learned anything from the HillaryCare defeat, it was the danger of admitting to their wish to federalize the health market. Since returning to power, they've pursued a new strategy: to stealthily and incrementally expand government control.

It's worth reading Strassel in full.