This is gruesome. All part of that fundamental transformation of America Obama promised us, and about which Governor Palin tried to warn us, in 2008:

Canada has taken its place among the Top 5 countries with the most economic freedom, according to a new Fraser Institute report — now leaps and bounds ahead of the United States thanks to the gradual shrinking of the Canadian government since the mid-1990s as America’s just got bigger.

The annual Economic Freedom of the World report, released Tuesday, has Canada tied in fifth place with Australia — up one spot from last year. Hong Kong remains at the top, Singapore’s next, then New Zealand.

Meanwhile, the United States, once a “standard bearer” of economic liberty among industrial nations, spiralled 10 spots from the 2011 rankings to 18th place — its lowest position ever, and a huge drop from its second place spot in 2000.

Any ideas on what could be behind this?  Could it be Obamacare? Dodd-Frank? Bailouts that stiff legally secured creditors in favor of union cronies? Destroying our AAA credit rating? Preventing energy companies from producing energy? Adding 11,327 pages to the Code of Federal Regulations? Take your pick. The Fraser Institute provided the following chart.

Think about this. What does it say about America when European social democracies like Ireland, Finland and Denmark have more economic freedom than we do? To Obama’s credit, I suppose we’ve found something he’s good at: destroying our economic liberty.