If there is one thing we can count on, it is that we can learn from history. In this case, maybe we should take a peek at what happened to one country - Argentina - when it increased its national debt to staggering levels and then implemented redistributionist policies to try and "correct" its wrongs. Could it happen in the United States? You betcha.

Consider Argentina. In 1914, it was one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and its living standard exceeded that of Western Europe until the late 1950s. Then President Juan Peron squandered his nation's prosperity by introducing a host of redistributionist economic and regulatory policies, nationalizing utilities and foreign investments, and pumping up the national debt. What followed was three decades of political instability, growing dependency, and economic stagnation.

There was a brief period of privatization and booming foreign investment in what the American Enterprise Institute's Mark Falcoff called Argentina's "go go" 1990s. But that was negated by the return of political leaders espousing Peronist principles who created a downward economic spiral by breaking contracts with foreign utility companies that had invested heavily in Argentina. Today, the country has lost its international credit standing and an estimated 10 percent of the population has moved abroad to escape the stifling taxes, regulation and inefficiency.

Don't pay any attention. After all, Obama is, as Newsweek called him, "Sort of a God." He'll make things right ....

.... Won't he?