The Hill News

“If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it.  And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”  Barack Obama was just 25 when President Ronald Reagan uttered those memorable words, but he evidently took them literally. President Obama has set a new standard for boundless government hyperactivity: taxing job creators, over-regulating domestic energy, and subsidizing economic failures like Solyndra.

When Democrats controlled Congress, President Obama grew government the old-fashioned way. He raised taxes on tanning beds, medicine and medical devices as a warm up, and then turned to the $500 billion tax hike included in his healthcare bill. These taxes are literally loss leaders compared to his oversized budget plans. With four consecutive years of trillion-dollar deficits, a budget written in red ink for the next decade, and no plan to tame the entitlement juggernaut, the real taxes hikes have yet to arrive.

When his legislative hammerlock was br! oken, the president moved from taxation to regulation. In Obama’s eyes, Congress has changed from a superhighway to a speed-bump. Take, for example, the new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray. Lacking the requisite votes in the U.S. Senate, President Obama just decided to appoint Cordray while Congress was still in session, trampling on the Senate’s advise and consent role.

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