Obama’s successful “100 days” [with help from Newt Gingrich]

1. Obama has managed to get Congress to give him authority that undermines their own power. Obama's record in the first 100 days includes incredible political accomplishments. Under the guise of "economic stimulus" he was able to pass a $787 billion gift for his liberal special interest base; and he did it so quickly that no member of Congress was able to read it before they voted.

2. After campaigning on a pledge to end earmarks, he signed an appropriations bill loaded with 8,000 earmarks - and paid no political penalty.

3. President Obama has kept congressional Democrats marching with him in lockstep. House Democrats tow the party line an amazing 94 percent of the time and Senate Democrats vote Democratic 91 percent of the time.

4. Obama has achieved two historic bureaucratic power grabs:

A. President Obama has transformed the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) into giant engines of unsupervised spending. Together, they've spent the equivalent of the entire federal budget for 2007, without having to disclose where the money went.

B. Obama achieved the unprecedented bureaucratic power grab (with help from the U.S. Supreme Court) by having the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule that carbon dioxide poses a threat to public health. This seemingly innocuous decision opens the door to wholesale regulation of American life by government. Democrat politicians and activists will use this authority to force Congress to pass a $1 trillion to $2 trillion energy tax in the form of cap-and-trade legislation.

5. In Foreign affairs the Obama first 100 days record also includes remarkable weakness and self-delusion overseas. Obama tried to overcome anti-Americanism abroad by agreeing with anti-Americanism and criticizing his own country. President Obama has gone on a global apology tour, labeling America as "arrogant, dismissive and derisive" in front of foreign audiences.

6. President Obama has unleashed a domestic war over the meaning of guilt by caving in to the anti-American left and leaving the door open to prosecuting Bush Administration officials over the interrogation of terrorists who plotted to kill Americans.

7. But all these successful expansions of government at home and retractions of American leadership abroad are merely a prelude to President Obama's forthcoming crowning achievement. Obama's 2010 budget remakes our health care system, remakes our energy system, raises taxes and forecasts an amazing $9 trillion increase in the national debt.

8. Obama will succeed in getting Democrats in Congress to pass the budget's provisions on health care by preventing Republicans and moderate Democrats from having a voice in the debate. Obama-Reid-Pelosi are going to pass legislation that fundamentally affects every single American - as well as 17 percent of our economy – and they will do so by excluding the elected representatives of half of all Americans out of the process. This will be President Obama's most enduring - and devastating - accomplishment.

9. “Will the Future Bring Change We Can Believe In? Or a Change in What we Believe? One thing is clear at this point in President Obama's presidency: His control of Washington Democrats has been so masterful, and his policies so successful, that he has officially claimed ownership of the American economy. Going forward, it won't be possible to continue to place blame on former President Bush and the Republicans. If President Obama fails, it will be his failure and his alone. As for us, the ‘success’ of the first 100 days of the Obama presidency raises a threatening possibility.” [Newt Gingrich] - And in my view, a fatal change in our freedoms and way of life.