The problem with modern-day liberals’ penchant for implementing functions not allowed in the Constitution isn’t just that they’re sticking their noses where they shouldn’t; it’s that it’s distracting them from sticking their noses where they should.

Fresh out of the gate, President Obama decided to continue President Bush’s plan to take over the nation’s largest car companies and banks by tempting them with bailout funds, then tightening the noose and micromanaging them from Washington.  Soon after, Obama decided to force taxpayers to guarantee virtually all U.S. mortgages, thus sticking a $5 trillion debt to people who had largely paid their mortgage bills on time.  Recently, Obama decided to cap executive pay for banks that took bailout money, and has expressed an interest in monitoring the pay of even banks that didn’t take TARP money.

Congress is currently considering unconstitutional legislation—stalled only because it is trying to pass even bigger, more expensive unconstitutional legislation—to impose cap-and-trade regulations to restrict and tax the nation’s energy use.

This summer, Obama carried out an amusing little $3 billion scheme to pay car owners to destroy their used automobiles and buy new ones, a jaunt that resulted in no significant net energy conservation in the U.S., boosted the auto industries of Japan and South Korea, and hurt the American used car business.

Since July, Democrats’ pet project has been to take over the U.S. health care system.  Not crazy enough to try to force through a single payer system, Senate Leader Harry Reid nonetheless went “rogue” on Monday, in defiance of Senate committee members and moderate Democrats, and announced that the Senate version of the health care reform bill would offer a public health insurance option, though such an option has zero chance of passing in the Senate.  read more »