During his visit to the New York City area on Thursday President Obama announced that HUD Secrtary Shaun Donovan would be the federal government’s “point person” in the cleanup and recovery effort. Seeing that he slammed the private sector and insurance companies, it’s no surprise that he appointed Donovan, who believes government is the answer to everything.

As if the names FEMA and Napolitano were not enough to inspire confidence that the federal government is managing the situation as well as could be hoped, Obama has taken the trouble to assign as his “point person” Donovan, whose views on housing and development are straight out of Benito Mussolini’s urban planning handbook. Obama has “every confidence” in this method, so you should “feel some confidence” too.

Here is Donovan quoted in the New York Times from 2006, describing his general philosophy of housing policy:

“I would never believe that the private sector, left to its own devices, is the best possible solution. I’m in government because of the role of government in setting rules and working in partnership with the private sector. On the other hand, there’s no way you could ever get to a scale that can really affect the housing problems in this country without working with the market.”

Here is the happy-faced summation of the left’s mindset, and the blithe elision of the anti-liberty instincts of the regulatory class: “I’m in government because of the role of government in setting rules and working in partnership with the private sector.” For “setting rules” here, read “rigging the market.” Having first set the rules in this manner, the “partnership” to which he refers is approximately analogous to the “partnership” between a protection racket and the shop owner who has been intimidated into paying the protection money.

Read the whole thing, this guy is a real piece of work. But what can you expect in the Obama administration?

Tracy at One Piece at a Time sees quite a few similarities between Donovan and one his his predecessors, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo. Keep an eye on Cuomo, he seems to have higher political ambitions. Don’t buy into his “moderate” image – he’s no moderate.