Stephen Moore in his essay at the Wall Street Journal offers a reading assigment for the new administration before they take office tomorrow:
Some years ago when I worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, we used to label any new hire who had not yet read "Atlas Shrugged" a "virgin." Being conversant in Ayn Rand's classic novel about the economic carnage caused by big government run amok was practically a job requirement. If only "Atlas" were required reading for every member of Congress and political appointee in the Obama administration. I'm confident that we'd get out of the current financial mess a lot faster.
Read the rest of his essay...it is well worth the time.
Unfortunately, we have now turned 180 degrees from the direction of the Reagan revolution. The new view in Washington is that government is not the problem, it is the solution.
(Thanks to Kate Singleton for passing this along).
Although I also have strong libertarian leanings, and I am an Ayn Rand fan, I'm actually kind of hopeful and optimistic about Obama.
Maybe the Republicans will actually learn a lesson from their recent losses about what they actually stand for. Their spending sprees for the last eight years have sickened me.
I voted a straight Libertarian ticket during the last election. But if Obama can pull off even a quarter of what is expected of him, I'm going to become a Blue Dog Democrat.
I'm not embarrassed to change my opinion upon receiving new information. That's how I run my business, so why not the rest of my life too?
Yes, I am sickened by the bailouts. But the Republicans voted for that too.
I am also sickened that our own country could run a prison that's straight out of Kafka's The Trial. We didn't have to torture the nazis when we fought them or keep them in secret prisons, and we still won. Our country should be about freedom and greatness, even when the enemy is evil.
We'll eventually get another movement toward fiscal conservatism in this country. It always swings back and forth. Eventually, people will realize that you can't tax your way to prosperity.
I'm just putting my head down and working on my own business. I can't control politics in general, or the economy in general, so it isn't worth worrying too much about.
To L -- It isn't worth worrying about the role of politics in the economy too much? It's frightening. But whether we are worried or not, we should be rising to the occasion. These issues impact us directly and often those around us. It's our hard earned money at play. As a young entrepreneur with a growing business, the taxation of productivity is disturbing to say the least.