LBJ's Great Society returns 40 years later

"We waged a war on poverty, and poverty won." Ronald Reagan.

The War on Poverty was carried out by President Lyndon B. Johnson, as part of his "Great Society" program. And yes, the Gipper was right, poverty won.

And liberals have been waiting for another opportunity since LBJ left office forty years ago to start writing big checks. And for younger libs like Obama, this is their first chance to recreate society based upon their visions.

The Wall Street Journal has more:

"Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before."

So said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in November, and Democrats in Congress are certainly taking his advice to heart. The 647-page, $825 billion House legislation is being sold as an economic "stimulus," but now that Democrats have finally released the details we understand Rahm's point much better. This is a political wonder that manages to spend money on just about every pent-up Democratic proposal of the last 40 years.

We've looked it over, and even we can't quite believe it. There's $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There's even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.

Here's my plan to get out of the recession. Cut taxes, and let the economy fix itself. During the presidential campaign, John McCain was criticized for not having a plan to fix the economy. He did, it's the same as my plan.

What Obama reminds me of is a smooth-talking jack-of-all-trades type who has limited knowledge of his project at hand, then proceeds to breaks things by "fixing" them.

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