Watching a fair chunk of the festivities last night, I guess I finally understood why Obama and Pelosi were doing what they were doing.

Sure, there are theories bandied about which, while they might well be true, for some reason have never struck me as a satisfactory answer to the simple question, “Why would they foist this garbage on the American people against their will?” The theories have ranged from the President hates white people to the Speaker is a crypto-communist, etc. etc. etc. Maybe they’re right, but man, I was still confused.

Then it became clear to me last night. They want to be remembered as the Lyndon Johnson or Franklin Delano Roosevelt of their time. Men who, in their minds, stood strong against a tide of hatred and atavism to enact the two greatest government programs in US history: Social Security and Medicare. That is why last night we saw, one after another, Democratic representatives talk about how Democrats have been the party of Social Security and Medicare. (Let’s skip over the fact that both were passed with bipartisan majorities. History is not a prerequisite for rhetoric.) That’s why Nancy Pelosi carried the gavel from the Social Security legislative session to the House. That’s why they pulled out all of the stops, knowing full well that it may cost them their majorities in 2010.

But here’s the punch line: they’re right, but not in the way that they think. Unless dramatically changed, Social Security and Medicare are destined to bankrupt our nation. Together, according to the Federal Reserve, they have an unfunded liability of – steel yourself – $90,000,000,000,000. Ninety trillion dollars. That is $300,000 for every man, woman, and child in the US. And given that the total private assets of US businesses and households is only $250,000 per person, these two programs alone have, quite literally, made the United States technically bankrupt. (In a related story, last week certain corporate bonds priced at lower yields than US Treasuries for the first time in history. Now back to our regularly scheduled broadcast.)

Legacies are often decided in the late innings. FDR and LBJ, to be sure, are seen today as bringers-of-good by those on the Left. But in the next 20 years, when it becomes widely accepted that FDR prolonged the Great Depression and LBJ triggered the metastasis of the Federal Government, and that their two “shining achievements” have put us on the road to penury – well, their legacies will crumble. As well they should.

So BHO will get what he wished for. He will stand alongside FDR and LBJ: three Presidents who created schemes to improve the human condition that failed on account of their hubris, their provinciality, and their historical ignorance.

Mr. President, Madame Speaker: enjoy the party while it lasts. I’m sure that in the final weeks before he was discovered to be a fraud, Bernie Madoff threw some great parties. But now he’s just another cheat who got the crap beaten out of him for crossing the wrong guy in prison. To paraphrase the late Johnnie Cochran: if the numbers don’t add, it’ll turn out bad.

The bad news is that there’s another crisis coming. The good news is that there are many fine people working hard to make sure it won’t go to waste.

L3