A liberal enemies list

To the victor goes the opportunity to spoil things, and President Barack Obama will have a full agenda if he takes the advice of one of the leading magazines in his camp, The New Republic. This month senior editor Timothy Noah prodded Obama to do through more executive orders what he could not get through Congress—and if you’re upset about the election results, you’ll be more upset if you plod through Noah’s list.

First comes cutting carbon emissions: Congress has said no to cap-and-trade, but Obama could impose his own cap on what comes from power plants, and could permanently cancel the Keystone XL pipeline. Second, Obama could expand his stealth amnesty for undocumented workers: Who cares what Congress doesn’t do?

Noah then got personal: “Fire Ed DeMarco.” DeMarco heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and “he has resisted necessary action in the form of principal write-downs for underwater mortgages owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” the government-sponsored mortgage finance corporations. DeMarco’s obviously idiotic reason: “He says it would be potentially too costly … to taxpayers.” Who cares about taxpayers?

Oh, a little problem might be that gargantuan budget deficits hurt the government’s credit rating, so here comes recommendation four: Since Moody’s probably will join Standard & Poor’s in downgrading U.S. treasuries, how about pushing “to overhaul the credit-rating agencies themselves”? (Do it to them before they do it to you.)

And so it goes, all the way to suggestion eight: “Pay all Home Health Care Workers Minimum Wage.” Right now, people who serve as companions to the elderly don’t need to be paid minimum wages, and a mandate would increase income for some but leaves others unemployed—but so what? It’s the thought that counts, and The New Republic is whispering in the presidential ear: You won, you won, have fun.