It looks like Barack is headed for his first big policy showdown, and it’s not coming from the right.  Congressional democrats have suspended funding for the closing of Guantanamo bay until the president comes up with a plan about where he’ll send the inmates.

This doesn’t mean the facility won’t close, it just means that the president is going to have to come up with a plan of action before it does.  Given Obama’s cart-before-the-horse track record, this may be easier said than done.   For its part, the executive branch says the facility is on track to close in January – however, they still have no idea where the detainees will go.

When asked to explain the Dems reversal, Dick Durban said “The feeling was at this point we were defending the unknown. We were being asked to defend a plan that hasn’t been announced. ”

Better get used to it, Dick.

As of today, 25 states have passed legislation stating that no inmates from Guantanamo will be given sanctuary, and more are expected to follow.  If Obama doesn’t come up with a concrete plan soon, there may be no options left on his rapidly shrinking table.

Obama has set his sights on health care.  That sound you hear?  It’s America’s doctors getting up from their desks and heading for the exits.

Later this week, we’ll talk about why Barack embracing a “rationed health care” system should frighten the bejeezus out of you, but for now, let’s focus on how he wants to pay for it.  The plan?  More taxes, of course.  Specifically, he’s going to tax the health care benefits that workers already receive.  Until this point, employee health benefits have been tax exempt, but if you’re going to give free medical assistance to people who don’t work, and therefore don’t pay into the system, the cash has to come from somewhere.  Obama, in his infinite wisdom, has decided that the only answer is to confiscate more money from an already overburdened populace and, as he promised during the campaign, “spread it around.”

To each according to his needs, From each according to his ability.

It’s all part of his continued disdain for successful Americans.  He believes fervently that those who have achieved prosperity in this country have done so at the expense of others, that their success is nothing more than evidence of what a “downright mean country” the United States is.  As time passes, it’s become all too clear that the real goal of his administration is not health care, or environmental reform, but a correction of what he sees as America’s fundamental flaw:  the basic fact that some people have more than others.

That’s it - nothing complicated.   Obama’s one deeply held ideal, maybe the only thing on which he will never waffle, is that it’s simply immoral for one person to be wealthy while another is poor. 

His election marked the start of the zero sum game, the goal of which is true economic equality.  He’ll achieve it through a massive expansion of taxation, and a massive contraction of personal freedom.  The only question is if  individual states will put up with it.  Already there are rumblings over state’s rights, an issue that seems antiquated but has, in fact, been ignored for far too long.  Montana, Utah, and Texas are leading the fight and we’d all better pray that they’re successful.  If  not, when everyone in the US  is equally poor, equally miserable, and living under the boot of a massive bureaucracy, Obama will be able to take the stage at the U.N. and declare proudly: “Mission Accomplished.”

-Robert Laurie