Government-Controlled Life

• Stimulus: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 significantly grew the size and scope of government, doubling the size of federal agencies--including Education and Energy--and moving America toward a government-mandated health care system, all while placing future generations further in debt.
• SCHIP: The State Children's Health Insurance Program was recently expanded to include wealthy adults in a government health care program designed for low-income children. The expansion is funded by a tobacco tax paid for predominantly by the poor and dependent on future smokers.
• Health Care: President Obama has made a significant down payment on a national health care plan that would force millions of Americans out of their private plans and into a government-run monopoly, providing lower quality care at a higher price to all.
• Housing: The Helping Families Save Their Home Act of 2009 actually destabilizes neighborhoods by allowing bankruptcy judges to unilaterally renegotiate your neighbor's mortgage principal and interest rates, causing an unstable mortgage market and incentives for individual bankruptcy.
• Welfare: The stimulus bill abolished the welfare reform under President Clinton, adding nearly $800 billion in new means-tested welfare spending over the next decade. The cost amounts to over $10,000 for each family paying income tax.
• Land Use: President Obama wishes to impose federal "smart use" regulations on local zoning, housing, and transportation laws so American cities will be developed by his standards, causing housing prices and foreclosures to skyrocket.

Government-Controlled Business

• Card Check: The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would eliminate the secret ballot in union organizing elections and create a federal arbitration board made up of bureaucrats in Washington who will tell private businesses how to operate.
• Auto Bailouts: After nearly $100 billion of taxpayer dollars has been distributed to two automakers, neither company is recovering. Meanwhile, the President and Congress dictate which cars they must build and who runs the companies.
• War on Paychecks: After fewer than 100 executives at AIG collected excessive bonuses for poor work, Congress retaliated by passing a bill that would eliminate bonuses for thousands and set broad-based wage ceilings. But the President did not think it went far enough, adding that the government should regulate wages nationwide.

The Exit Strategy

• Equal Opportunity: Citizens need to be free to choose health care programs that match the congressional plan--and not in name only. Employees need to be just as free not to form a union as to form one, and employers need to be free to offer reasonable compensation not dictated by Washington bureaucrats.
• Empowered Americans: Washington needs to let Americans keep more of their money. By cutting individual and business taxes, Washington will allow businesses to flourish and individuals to succeed. Families will always invest in their own future better than Congress will for them.
• Building U.S. Energy Choices: Washington should allow free enterprise to diversify our energy mix. Nuclear, solar, wind, coal, and biofuels should all have a place in keeping energy prices low while reducing environmental impacts.
• Protect America: Through a strong missile defense program and a 4% baseline for defense spending, we can protect America and be free to project global leadership while minimizing our vulnerability to attack.

For more information on returning freedom and power to the people, please visit: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/04/09/war-on-the-american-dream-sapping-americas-potential.