Obama's 'FDR' plan exposed?

Many were left to ponder what Barack Obama meant when he used his Democratic National Convention speech last week to call for "the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one."

Two bestselling authors believe they may have solved that puzzle by uncovering progressive plans for Obama's second term that may include the re-creation of a 21st century version of FDR's Works Progress Administration as part of a massive government-funded jobs program.

During his DNC speech, Obama declared: "It will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades. It will require common effort, shared responsibility, and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one."

The president did not specify which possible methods of "experimentation" he had in mind, but in the recently released book "Fool Me Twice: Obama's Shocking Plans for the Next Four Years Exposed," New York Times bestselling authors Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott document second term plans that come right from FDR's playbook, most prominently an updated version of the WPA within the Department of Labor.

"Fool Me Twice" documents how progressive groups tied to the White House back the 2011 21st Century Works Progress Administration Act. The legislation would "immediately put Americans to work rebuilding our nation and strengthening our communities," according to its literature.

The 21st century reincarnation of Roosevelt's WPA would operate under the auspices of a Works Progress Administration created within the Department of Labor and headed by the secretary of labor.

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The bill, proposed by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., proposes projects similar to those of the earlier era, including residential and commercial building weatherization; residential and commercial water use efficiency improvement; highway, bridge and rail repair and maintenance; manufacturing projects; school, library and firehouse construction; soil erosion and pesticide runoff prevention; National Park and trail maintenance; and "other projects that are proposed by the eligible departments and determined appropriate by the administration."

Green stimulus

Besides the WPA, "Fool Me Twice" details second-term recommendations to Obama that aim for more government funds to the manufacturing industries, most prominently to the "green" industry.

A seminal report by the de facto policy nerve center of the Obama White House, the Center for American Progress, or CAP, titled "Cutting the Cost of Clean Energy 1.0," recommends a federal "green bank" for the sole purpose of loaning or granting public funds to so-called clean energy companies.

The report calls for a new "Energy Independence Trust," which could "borrow from the federal treasury to provide low-cost financing to private sector investments in clean energy."

Continues the CAP paper: "Our proposed Energy Independence Trust would hold sufficient reserves to protect the Treasury from loan losses and would be able to offer a variety of debt- and equity-based financial instruments, loan guarantees and tax incentives to draw a wave of private capital into the clean energy sector."

An organization that calls itself the Presidential Climate Action Project, or PCAP, has been working with the Obama administration since the beginning to help craft and implement White House environmental policy.

Following Obama's victory in 2008, PCAP began working with John Podesta, co chairman of Obama's transition team, to help the incoming president formulate an initial 100-day environmental agenda. Podesta is president and CEO of CAP.

PCAP's recommendation is that the Department of Energy should join three other federal agencies – the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency – in funding what is essentially a progressive slush fund called the Partnership for Sustainable Communities.

The Partnership blandly proclaims it aims to "help communities nationwide improve access to affordable housing, increase transportation options and lower transportation costs while protecting the environment."

Jobs fairness

Obama has made "economic fairness" the centerpiece of his second-term agenda. The president's January 2012 State of the Union address called for "equal pay for equal work."

"Fool Me Twice" uncovers the radical origins of the "economic fairness" mantra as well as Obama's specific second-term "fairness" plans.

Write Klein and Elliott: "One of the most deceptive tricks in Obama's rhetorical arsenal is his use of the term 'economic fairness.' A prime example of the progressives' use, in general, of harmless-sounding rhetoric in their advancement of radical objectives, this 'fairness' derives directly from the Marxist conception of economic justice."

Late Harvard professor John Rawls, one of the most important philosophers of liberalism in the 20th century, named his own theory "justice as fairness." Some have previously pointed to Rawls' possible influence over Obama. Rawls calls for ensuring distributive justice of resources.

"Fool Me Twice" documents how progressive groups behind Obama's first-term agenda are now pushing plans, some already attempted in previous progressive Democrat legislation, for a second Obama term push for "paycheck fairness" and so-called equal pay fairness.

Originally, "equal pay" legislation, such as the 1963 Equal Pay Act, had the goal of ensuring women would not be paid less for doing the same jobs as men.

The current progressive concept of equal pay, "Fool Me Twice" relates, would give the government sweeping powers to require employers to compensate workers according to an artificial calculation of a job's "value" rather than what the private market is willing to pay.

Other powers would allow federal bureaucrats to decide which jobs are underpaid and would require employers to raise wages.

The government would also determine whether "bias" or "discrimination" exists in "equivalent" – but not equal – jobs based on race, sex, sexual orientation and other determining factors.

Warn Klein and Elliott: "In truth, Obama's progressive conception of fairness is not the classic Marxist one, or Marx was the prophet and theoretician of a revolutionary working class. But today's neo-socialist progressives have completely abandoned and betrayed the working class, along with small-business owners, in favor of a welfare class, a middle class ever more dependent on government hand-outs, and a progressive, liberal elite."

Such a welfare system is also in the works.

WND reported last week how "Fool Me Twice" reveals Obama's second term agenda includes the prescription for the implementation of a higher minimum wage that would "raise the floor for all employees" nationwide.

Such a "living wage" – a pet project of ACORN – was previously attempted in over 80 U.S. cities, many times to disastrous affect.

The progressive groups, already instrumental in influencing Obama's first-term economic agenda, also call for Obama and Congress to enact a government mandate to force businesses to provide 12 weeks of paid benefits to employees who need time off to care for a new child, a sick family member or their own illness.