Abu Wabu

The story of the SEC's case against Goldman Sachs is one of chicanery. Not by a bunch of Wall Street hustlers, but by the Obama regime to construct a premise for taking over that part of the economy that has so far escaped his statist grasp. Witness the NY Post's exposé of the Obama regime's campaign already in place and set to fire as soon as the SEC laid its charges against Goldman Sachs:

President Obama is bringing his war on Wall Street to the enemy's turf. He'll make his pitch for financial reform in the heart of lower Manhattan Thursday — even as his team make hay of the Goldman Sachs fiasco with a tech savvy appeal to Democratic donors.

Internet surfers who entered "Goldman Sachs SEC" into Google were directed to the president's campaign Web site via a sponsored link titled "Help Change Wall Street." The White House's political arm paid for the keywords — but would not say how much. The tactic provided the latest evidence of how Obama and the Democratic National Committee are using the Securities and Exchange Commission's bombshell fraud suit against the financial giant to push financial-reform legislation through Congress.

Rahm Emanuel and Robert Gibbs have belatedy denied any linkage between the two events, and only someone gullible enough to have voted for Obama would believe that lie, but this is not what the public should be focused on.

Americans should instead be focused on the fact that Obama is lying about his so-called "financial reform" bill, because it is not what he says it is.

In his Sunday radio address, Obama claimed the bill would "hold Wall Street accountable" and prevent any more taxpayer-funded bailouts of companies in trouble:

Never again will taxpayers be on the hook because a financial company is deemed 'too big to fail'."

In fact, and in keeping with standard Obama practice, the truth is the exact opposite of Obama's claim, as confirmed by Democrat House Financial Services Committee member Brad Sherman ("The bill contains permanent, unlimited bailout authority.") and this shocking summary of the bill's bailout provisions:

First, the bill contains a $50 billion fund for resolution of systemically risky institutions. The bill allows a 2/3 vote of the Financial Stability Oversight Council to deem any firm (financial or non-financial) as coming under its rubric and then authorizes the FDIC and Treasury Secretary to treat each of the firm's shareholders and creditors as they choose, without regard to bankruptcy law. Second, the bill gives the Treasury and the FDIC authority to grant an unlimited number of loan guarantees to systemically risky institutions. No Congressional authorization or appropriation is required. Third, the bill gives the Fed the authority to fund any "program" to assist these institutions accepting as collateral anything it deems appropriate.

Obama's totalitarian urge to "deem", most recently illustrated in the Obamacare fiasco but also the devil in such details as "deeming" into existence the fictional construct of an Office of the President-Elect, is still alive and well.

Obama's "financial reform" bill usurps the Legislative Branch's financial regulatory powers exclusively to the Executive Branch, without regard for established bankruptcy laws, Congressional powers and responsibilities, even Constitutional limitations. It establishes a taxpayer-funded government slush fund whose dual purpose is to enrich its corporate friends and dismantle its corporate enemies, a classic national socialist play if there ever was one.

And this legislation is not limited to financial firms; any commercial enterprise can be arbitrarily either rescued or dismantled at the behest of the Obama regime, meaning Obama can simply reach out and crush anyone, anywhere, any time.

This is Obama's biggest, most audacious power grab so far, and I cannot imagine a more destabilizing force on the American economy than this bill. It must be stopped.

This is not a fight between Goldman Sachs and the SEC; this is a full frontal attack by Obama on the Constitution and all its inconvenient restraints on Obama's power. The SEC case against GS is just the premise for that attack.

Writes Andy McCarthy with trademark clarity,

The statists who gave us the financial meltdown are making a wager more insidious than anything Paulson or Goldman ever came up with. They are betting that Americans will be duped into believing that something other than pandering — something other than the government’s scheme to use taxpayers’ dollars to purchase the loyalty of low-income and minority voters — is responsible for our current straits. Obama & Co. are constructing a narrative that says a near-depression was triggered by greedy Wall Street predators who dragged investors under water. If you buy that, they get a double boon: They escape blame, and they bolster their campaign to grab more control of the private sector under the guise of “regulation.”