Real Crisis

by Lance Thompson

Over the weekend, the Obama administration has changed the National Economic Threat Level Red (describe economy as a crisis bordering on a catastrophe) to Green “the economy is sound–what, me worry?”  This, despite the fact that during the presidential campaign, Obama ridiculed opponent John McCain for making the same confident statement about America’s finances, and that was long before everyone’s 401K got the Obama meltdown discount.  But, even though our houses and retirement funds are worth less, our jobs are gone or disappearing, and the federal government continues to spend money faster than they can print it, I’m willing to take Obama at his word that the economy is not a crisis.

Now, to address this troubled economy, which is fundamentally strong and not in a crisis, Obama has spent all the money we have and quite a bit of money that doesn’t exist.  He spent this money as directed by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, on all manner of liberal wish-list projects and earmarks, under the guise of “emergency stimulus.”  Okay, let’s assume that all that deficit spending will eventually revive the economy at some point in our grandchildren’s future.

The rest of the world does not stand still, and crises arise on unpredictable and inconvenient schedules all their own.  It is not certain what the next crisis will be, but it is undeniable that there will be one.

In international relations, where state gifts from this administration range from 25 bargain bin DVD’s to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to Hillary Clinton’s presentation of a panic button to the Russian government, events are unpredictable.  Pakistan may collapse and the nation’s eighty-odd nukes would be in the hands of–well, who knows?  China, with a resurgent space program, has harassed our ships on the high seas and tested anti-satellite weapons.  The Chinese know that there is unlikely to be another American administration less likely to interfere in an invasion of Taiwan.  Russia has ridiculed our groveling offer to cancel missile defense in Eastern Europe in exchange for their cessation of military and nuclear aid to Iran.  And Iran’s dual space- and nuclear programs are transparently complementary as foundations for nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.  All of these, and many more, are possible international crises.

Naturally, the crisis may be of another kind.  Hurricane season is coming up.  Has anyone noticed a dearth of beachfront housing, commercial property or industry?  We are just as vulnerable to another Katrina as ever.  Volcanoes are restive in Alaska and Yellowstone has been rumbling of late.  California hasn’t had a big quake in over a decade–they’re seismically due, as is the New Madrid fault in the Mississippi Valley which breaks loose at much longer intervals.  We’ve had some near-misses from asteroids lately, the latest of which came as something of an astronomical surprise.  Don’t forget regular disasters like blizzards in the northeast, droughts in the Southwest, floods all over the flatlands.  And judging from the impeccable science that backs up the global warming alarmists, another ice age must be imminent.

Crises come in all varieties.  We could have a viral pandemic that would overtax our health care system.  The drug wars of Mexico, which really are on the scale of an actual war, could explode across the border at any moment.  More terrorist strikes are undeniably being planned.  Many have been prevented or interdicted over the last eight years by a vigilance which has been systematically relaxed since Obama took office.  And, of course, a real financial crisis could occur at any time–the FDIC could fail, homeowners could stop paying their mortgages to qualify for mortgage assistance, mass layoffs could follow tax hikes on businesses and corporations, China and Japan could call in their debts or even stop raising the limits on our credit cards.

I raise these possibilities not merely to increase readers’ gray hair quotients, but because they all have one common trait.  The responses or solutions to each of these crises will be very expensive.  Whether it’s sending a military force to war in the Western Pacific, rebuilding a devastated city or region, or treating millions of stricken Americans, the federal government will be called upon to act quickly, and spend vastly.

But the financial crisis, which has now been disavowed by the administration and Democrats in Congress who used it to pass their profligate spending bills, has already spent all the money.  If what they say is true (try not to snicker at that), then the economy is sound, there is no crises, and we spent a couple of trillion dollars because we panicked.

Much like the response to the boy who cried wolf, the vast economic resources of the nation were called out, record-breaking debt was incurred, and private corporations were taken over by government agencies, all to meet a false alarm.  After two months of Obama, the coffers are empty and the debt is overwhelming.  This administration has made certain that we literally can’t afford another crisis.

Which makes one wonder what we will do when one occurs.