Crony capitalism or crypto-socialism?
by Ed O'Boyle - posted Thursday, January 17th, 2013 @ 12:00 pm

For many Barack Obama's "hope and change" is nothing more than the logical extension of and improvement upon Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal that gave Americans Social Security and unemployment insurance and Lyndon Johnson's Great Society that ushered in Medicare and Medicaid.

For others "hope and change" stood Bill Clinton's "the era of big government is over" on its head, and dismantled Ronald Reagan's "government is the problem." "Hope and change" means that big government is back because big government is the solution to our problems.

How have the architects of "hope and change" been able to pull this off? Answer: by the time-honored practices of (a) taking care of their constituents and (b) persuading them that someone else is paying the bill.
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Edward J. O’Boyle is Senior Research Associate with Mayo Research Institute. He has offices in West Monroe, Lake Charles and New Orleans. He can be reached at 381-4002 or edoboyle@earthlink.net.