RIGONOMICS:

Trying to keep this column about local issues is pretty hard when the events of the day that affect us most are happening at the state and federal level.

It also does not help when Daily Pilot Columnist Joseph Bell states that my concern that President Obama is transforming the U.S. into a socialist society is “obstructionist tactics of the Republican right.” I am not the only one saying we are going down a socialist road.

Newsweek — not exactly the mouthpiece of the Republican Party — ran the front cover story last week, “We are all Socialists now.” The Los Angeles Times, not exactly a great supporter of the party of Lincoln, said Friday about Obama’s $3.55-trillion budget: “Not since Lyndon B. Johnson and Franklin D. Roosevelt has a president moved to expand government on so many fronts.” FDR and LBJ are small-government Democrats when compared to what this president is trying to do.

I know my tagline says that I am a “local GOP activist,” but how many Democrats in Orange County really want us to become a full-blown socialist country?

Stopping this country from becoming a socialist state is not a partisan issue at all. It is an issue of freedom that all Americans should care about — Democrat, Independent and Republican alike.

Past talk that Barack Obama ran his campaign to the left but would govern from the center is completely out the window.

The budget he just released lays bare any hope of a centrist-run country. His budget is pure socialism.

Let’s start with health care. Obama is making a “$634-billion down payment” to start a universal health-care system for everyone. I mean everyone.

You will no longer have a choice of hospital or doctor; doctors and hospitals will no longer be able to set any of the prices for the services they give once this system is in place.

In universal health care, the government decides what procedures are cost effective. Good luck trying to get a hip replacement when you are 75. It just won’t pencil out.

If you think to yourself, “No problem, I have enough money to pay for it on my own,” then good luck finding a doctor or hospital to do the procedure.

In a single-payer system, once the provider chooses to be part of the system, it can no longer take “Private Pay” patients. In order for single-payer universal care to work, the government must control the service providers. Doctors and hospitals will have no choice but to join the system.

How about transportation? This budget has a 700% increase in transportation! You do not increase a budget 700% for merely roads and bridges. This is money to take over the U.S. auto industry and everything else that touches transportation. Americans will be back to the days of Henry Ford when you could buy a car in any color you wanted as long as it was black. In this case you will be able to buy any car you like as long as it is approved by Washington. The federal government already owns GM and Chrysler (God bless Ford, which hasn’t taken a dime). Forget pickup trucks and SUVs — those will no longer be government-approved. If electric cars cost too much, no problem; we will just subsidize them from the taxes that we will put on carbon-based energy.

What the left has been trying to do for the last 60 years is to take more control over your life. Obama will do it before the midterm elections.

Obama’s plan is actually very simple. He just wants everyone to be exactly equal. And not equal in opportunity, but actual equal outcomes. America’s greatness lies in the fact that we are all created equal. Unlike in other countries, the American Dream is very simple. No matter what your lot in life is, if you work hard and play by the rules, you can have a better life for you and your family than the one you were born into.

Wake up, America. Our way of life as we know it is about to change radically. It’s not time to be partisan. It is time to be a patriot. The greatness of this country is based on having free people who make their own choices in life — not the government making them for you.

JIM RIGHEIMER is a Costa Mesa planning commissioner, a local developer and a GOP activist. He may be reached at jim@rigonomics.com.