That’s how fast Ronald Reagan was spinning in his grave yesterday as The One delivered his speech on the economy. When President Reagan entered office in 1981, he was faced with an economic problem brought on by four years of Carter ineptitude. Did he call for massive government intervention? No. Let me refresh your memory, in case you need it:

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.

Compare and contrast with yesterday’s message from on high:

It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth. But at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the cycle that is crippling our economy, where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs, which leads to even less spending, where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit.

A radio commentator this morning referred to Obama’s speech as his “Only Government” speech, and if you read the entire thing, that is precisely the theme.

His Majesty-Elect certainly put to bed any hopes we might have had that we wouldn’t be seeing an implementation of the wealth-redistributing socialist paradise that he hinted at during the campaign. Despite all of the noise about how he has betrayed his leftist supporters by his “moderate” Cabinet appointees, in the end we will be getting precisely what (at least some) Republicans warned.

One last gem from yesterday:

And that’s why our goal is not to create a slew of new government programs, but a foundation for long-term economic growth.

Uh, yeah, I’m afraid that “a slew of new government” programs IS your goal. Your liberal colleagues that proceeded you have never, ever eliminated new government programs once they’ve been instituted. So, if you were serious about this, you never would have uttered the words “only government” in the first place.