the real Obama

"There is nothing particularly “European” or “socialist” about Mr Obama’s stimulus package. Countries the world over are spending public money in a bid to boost demand and shore up the banks. Indeed, some of the most stubborn resistance to deficit financing has come from Europe, particularly from Germany and the EU finance ministers. Messrs Gingrich and Romney might note that the man who set this ball rolling was not Mr Obama but Mr Bush, the most un-European politician imaginable. What about Mr Obama’s plans to raise taxes and redirect social policy? There are plenty of plausible criticisms of these (such as the fact that his numbers do not add up), but the idea that they entail “full-scale Europeanisation”, as Mark Steyn, a columnist, argues, is one of the least persuasive. Mr Obama’s budget will return the top tax rates to 36% and 39.6%—back to where they were during Bill Clinton’s administration. Mr Clinton ended up presiding over the high-tech boom and a surge in the number of small businesses. Mr Obama has eschewed the single-payer model of health-care reform long advocated by the European-minded left; he wants to use public insurance to supplement the private system, not supplant it. Many of the strongest supporters of his health-care reforms are business people who are being crushed by the exorbitant cost of health care. For all Europe’s Obamamania Mr Obama is, in fact, one of the least European-minded of American presidents.""