Scott E. Harrington, Ph.D.

The Administration and Congressional Democrats demonized health insurers to help pass their healthcare reform agenda.  They then demonized Wall Street to help pass their financial reform agenda.  These “whipping boy” strategies had a common goal:  substantial expansion of federal government control over the private sector.

The Dodd-Frank financial reform bill vastly expands federal power over financial institutions and beyond, leaving most of the substantive details to be worked out by administrative agencies. The byzantine bill evades most of the underlying causes of the financial crisis.  Its creation of a vast new federal consumer protection agency bears little relation to those causes.   It’s a bad bill at a bad time for the economy.  It will hinder rather than enhance economic growth.  It will hurt Main Street without preventing future crises. Unintended consequences will abound.

The bill’s namesakes procrastinated while Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the housing bubble grew rapidly.  Their bill does not touch Fannie or Freddie.  But it rewards the Federal Reserve with significantly expanded regulatory power, despite the Fed’s monetary and regulatory failures that played significant roles in creating the housing bubble.

BP should bear full responsibility for the Gulf oil spill according to the rule of law. It is entitled to due process. The politics surrounding the $20 billion dollar fund and the latest Congressional show trial are an embarrassment.

If the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats had not blown hundreds of billions of dollars in the 2009 “stimulus” bill, perhaps we could have provided the Gulf regions with several times $20 billion in immediate and special disaster relief (with recourse against BP according to the rule of law).

Without any research on the circumstances or possible mitigating circumstances, conservative commentator Sean Hannity advocated on his TV show that the teacher who was videotaped pummeling the student in Houston should serve a minimum of 10 years in prison. This self-righteous and angry rush to judgment shows an incredible lack of perspective and concern with due process. Hannity has repeatedly attacked President Obama for rushing to judgment over the arrest of the Harvard professor in his own home last year. Perhaps Sean should likewise calm down and get some facts before he pronounces judgment. His performance sickened me. Perhaps upon reflection Hannity will admit that he lost it and apologize to his viewers.