Metro

O’s cloud over us all

Americans are in a panic. Crowds throng gun shows and shops. Blue-chip companies fast-forward next year’s dividends to this year. Investors cash out profits, estate planners report a rush of people trying to beat higher inheritance taxes and lobbyists line up for favors.

What these people share is the goal of avoiding or benefitting from government actions. More than ever, the “invisible hand” of free markets is being replaced by the visible hand of bureaucrats. The political class is the new master of the universe.

If this were being staged in a theater, the national epidemic of expectation would be called “Waiting for Government.” It would be as absurd as “Waiting for Godot,” but not at all meaningless.

That’s because the tax-and-spending drama in Washington, as pathetic and infuriating as it is, threatens real-world consequences for every American. How could it be otherwise when Big Government is getting bigger?

Much, much bigger.

The frantic run-up to the fiscal cliff, including wild swings in the stock market, provided an ominous snapshot of the new reality. Barack Obama’s re-election was the big story of 2012, but the real impact of his statist policies will be felt in the new year and for many years to come.

Obama’s victory secures first-term government expansions, such as ObamaCare, which carries expensive mandates and who knows how many unintended consequences. No matter how the fiscal talks are resolved, the IRS will be taking a fatter share of the fruits of national labor. At stake is how much fatter, whose ox gets gored and whose gets spared.

Some statistics, such as housing prices, say the economy is growing, but it’s all relative. The unemployment rate is falling largely because millions have stopped looking for work. Ordinary wages are stagnant or falling.

But it is boom time for the government. Spending continues to rise, hiring is up and the Federal Reserve’s printing presses are running overtime.

The Obama administration is happy to keep borrowing 40 cents of every dollar it spends, or nearly $4 billion a day, seven days a week. Each day brings plans for added regulations and new ways to rob Peter to pay Paul.

The combination creates a huge cloud hanging over every family and business. Debts and inflation exact penalties, perhaps for generations, and already are stifling innovation and job creation. Ours has become the world’s largest debtor nation and still needs more lenders.

The certain result will be an economic pie that doesn’t grow fast enough, which will lead to new demands for more redistribution under the guise of “fairness.” Always, the government redistributes by taking the first bite for itself.

The most disheartening aspect of this gloomy vision is that Americans voted for it. Obama was upfront about wanting to raise taxes and expand government and the debt. The reach and cost of Washington grew dramatically in the last four years, and he was rewarded with four more.

It is naive to think he will change course. His rejection of any serious reforms of entitlements shows that he is emboldened. Woe to the man who dares declare that the government already is too big and powerful. He will be denounced as cruel and caricatured as wanting no government at all.

This being the season for predictions, mine is that millions upon millions of Americans who voted for Obama will be disappointed in 2013. But most will not blame him. They will agree with him that the solution is to double the dose of Washington power.

Never mind that the patient is dying. The Obama operation is a great success. Just ask him.

‘Cats’ out of the bag: I may well be running

If a fast response counts, John Catsimatidis is serious about running for mayor.

After I said on WOR radio that I didn’t think the supermarket magnate would win the GOP nomination next year, I got an e-mail saying he’d heard me.

“Give a guy a break,” he wrote. “Listen to me first before you discount me.”

So we talked and here’s some of what he said:

“I was running four years ago and had the Republican nomination — then Mayor Bloomberg called me and said he was going for a third term. He asked me to help him get the nomination back. The county chairs were reluctant because he hadn’t returned their calls in three years, but I convinced them it was good for the city.”

He calls himself a “fusion candidate,” saying he’s “a northern Republican, not a southern Republican.” He adds that he’s also a “Clinton Democrat” who voted for Mitt Romney.

He doesn’t think Joe Lhota, a likely GOP rival, can raise “money or appeal to enough Democrats” to win. His net worth north of $2 billion, Catsimatidis said he’ll accept contributions and spend his own money, but the sky’s not the limit: “I’m not going to spend $100 million like Bloomberg; that was excessive.”

He admires the mayor’s leadership, but calls city taxes and regulations “horrible.” He thinks New York has too many employees but not enough cops.

He confesses that he “curses and hollers” at bicycle lanes, saying City Hall is “penalizing thousands of cars to benefit three or four bicycle people.”

So, is he definitely running? I asked twice because the answer was not clear.

“I only play to win. If it looks like we could win, we’re willing to go all the way,” he says. When I push, he adds: “If we win the primary, we’re committed.”

That sounds like “maybe.”

NYPD lifesavers

For New Yorkers, the Police Department is the gift that keeps on giving. As top cop Ray Kelly said as he and Mayor Bloomberg celebrated a new annual low in murders and shootings, “We’re taking 8,000 weapons annually out of the hands of people we stop, 800 of them illegal handguns. We’re preventing crimes before someone is killed and before someone else has to go to prison for murder or other serious crimes.”

Saving lives from both bullets and prison is one of the great accomplishments in municipal history. And there’s an extra benefit in the holiday season — the cop haters and bellyachers are silent in the face of such overwhelming facts. Count that as another miracle.

‘Benghazi lying’ is a full-time WH job

“No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up,” Lily Tomlin once said. She could have been talking the Benghazi debacle.

The White House’s lies about the September 11th terror attack didn’t end with the fictional protest over a video. The report that four State Department officials were forced out was also false. The four merely were given new jobs and titles.

A Dem master of gun metaphor

Proving again that being a Democrat means never having to say you’re sorry, House leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland went wiggy while blasting the GOP for refusing to raise taxes.

“It’s somewhat like taking your child hostage and saying, ‘I’m going to shoot my child if you don’t do what I want,’ ” he said.

Stay tuned for Hoyer’s lecture on restoring civility to public life.