Blindness... Willful?

Arianna Huffington clearly cannot see her own hand in front of her face.

Arianna Huffington at Real Clear Politics
Ronald Reagan, in his first inaugural address, famously declared that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."

Twenty-seven years later, in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and seven-plus years into the reign of Bush and Cheney, Reagan's anti-government battle cry should be on trial. But, stunningly, it is not.

There is a very simple reason for that Arianna, that's because government is the problem. Government in the form of attempts at engineering social conditions through the Community Reinvestment Act. Government forcing lenders, with the threat of legal action, to make loans to people that no sane business would make loans to. Government in the form of willful blindness to the fiscal reality of a Fanny Mae that was out of control for years.

And when I say "government" I mean Democrats.

Huffington, in her far reaching advocacy of what amounts to socialism, goes on to extol the virtues of a government that grows, presumably without limit, and takes care of all of our problems the way God intended. She accuses Republicans of being two faced, wanting government out of the way and wanting it to bail them out of this emergency. She says Republicans want no regulations—until they need to be rescued from themselves. But the only way she can reconcile this strange twist of logic is to completely (willfully?) ignore the facts. We are not dealing with a failure of the market so much as we are dealing with a failure of government to stay out of the way in the first place. She forgets (willfully?) that it was Democrats who fought against regulation of Fanny Mae. More than once. It was Democrats who believed—and continue to believe, if Huffington is any measure—that you can change the way the world works simply by passing a law that says it has changed. And, if their good-intentioned law fails to produce the desired Utopian result, it must have been underfunded. Throw more money at it!

Huffington also forgets (willfully?) that a majority of Republicans voted against the bailout, which completely invalidates her whole premise. Conservatives are understandably reluctant to bail out a system which they have been trying to reign in for years but, to paraphrase Mr. Reagan, government needs to be part of the solution because government was the cause of the problem.

And when I say government...

Update: Hello Hot Air readers! Reading Ed Morrissey proves you have good judgment. I'm just starting to blog again after a two year hiatus. I hope you'll look around and return to see how I'm doing.

Comments

[jevica]

Great column, esp. about Arianna Huffington. I have liberal [very] relative who brings her up as a source as a conservative who "saw the light." I have posted similar type information about this CRA, Fannie and Freddie on my blog, but liberals don't care about facts or the truth, all they want is to attack Bush and Republicans as the cause.

[chad]

You started off on the right track calling out Huffington for a paradoxical outtake on
Reagan's statement but lost me from there. You're interpretation of the CRA is misleading at best. Ask any banker and they will confirm that the idea of lenders being forced to give loans in the past several years is laughable.

You're subtle attempt to insinuate that the bailout (poor choice or not) really has any effect on what's going on is also baseless.

You're defense of the Republicans is really just an offense on the Democrats.