The Next Crisis-Emergency-Rush
I have been trying to find a word to describe the legislative style we have seen prominently over the last 9 months (though it was used long before this administration -- the Patriot Act comes to mind). Unable to think of any other name, an in homage to "murder-death-kill" in "Demolition Man," I am going to call it Crisis-Emergency-Rush.
TARP was a Crisis-Emergency-Rush. As was the Stimulus bill, Waxman-Markey, and now Health Care. (The last two are particularly hilarious when one needs to evaluate the need to rush. Waxman-Markey is implemented over decades, and the health care bills as currently written don't really begin to take effect until 2013).
So here is my prediction for the next Crisis-Emergency-Rush: Raising taxes. Obama already has his boys out sending trial balloons about new taxes, even beyond those required in Waxman-Markey and to fund the health care bill. Having spent over a trillion dollars on useless spending to support favored political constituencies, Obama will now declare a fiscal crisis that can only be solved by increased taxes on his non-favored constituencies.