Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why Obama's Economy Won't Improve
Townhall.com ^ | August 2, 2011 | Mona Charen

Posted on 08/02/2011 5:37:46 AM PDT by Kaslin

There are some on the right who believe that Barack Obama is intentionally steering the United States into disaster -- that he privately rejoices in the dismal economy because it partially fulfills his objective to bring the country down.

This strikes me as, at the very least, overwrought. One would have to accept the idea that Gene Sperling, Timothy Geithner and the president clapped one another on the back when the latest GDP figures arrived. ".04 percent growth in the first quarter. 1.3 percent last quarter. Way to go! We'll be in recession again in no time."

Not likely. The president and his team were no doubt surprised and dismayed by the economy's poor performance in the past six months. The president, after all, has announced for re-election. The country was supposed to be well into the Obama recovery by now. Actually, the summer of 2010 was going to be, the Obama administration promised, "recovery summer."

The president's team has taken to offering ever more creative explanations for the economy's weakness. It was George Bush's fault, or a "bump in the road," or a response to the Eurozone crisis, or a consequence of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, or a result of the drought in the southwest. It's reminiscent of the old Soviet Union's explanation that for the 69th, 70th and 71st consecutive year, poor weather had caused a bad harvest.

The president and his economic advisers should not be surprised, though, because this administration has not been about growth -- it has been about "fairness." And in the name of fairness, it has created the most anti-business climate since Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. As Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts, recently complained:

"I'm saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I can prove it, and I could spend the next three hours giving you examples of all of us in this marketplace that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our health care costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right."

It's not that the president wants to hurt the country; it's that he believes that the best things the country has ever done have been done by government. "We do big things," he said in his State of the Union address in January. But when enumerating those things, he focused on the things government has done -- building the interstate highway system, setting up the Internet, funding education. (Oh, do we ever fund education!) And that's what he wants more of:

"Over the last two years, we have begun rebuilding for the 21st century, a project that has meant thousands of good jobs for the hard-hit construction industry. Tonight, I'm proposing that we redouble these efforts._ We will put more Americans to work repairing crumbling roads and bridges. We will make sure this is fully paid for, attract private investment, and pick projects based on what's best for the economy, not politicians._ Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail, which could allow you to go places in half the time it takes to travel by car."

The president is dazzled by the vision of those shiny high-speed rail trains -- and by solar panels, electric cars and other pet projects that have caught his imagination. What he has been unwilling to do is to permit the vast private sector to make its own decisions -- to follow its own ideas.

Instead, the administration has been saddling the private sector with a stifling load of regulations. The burden of Obamacare, most of which does not take effect until 2014, is mostly in the realm of fear and uncertainty. Employers do not know how much each new hire will cost under the new health care regime. Nor can they estimate how the 129 new boards, commissions and agencies will affect the business world.

Meanwhile, the EPA is regulating carbon dioxide as an air pollutant. The NLRB is attempting to prevent the Boeing Corporation from opening a new plant in South Carolina. The FCC is seeking to exert control over Internet commerce through the deceptively named "net neutrality" policy. The Department of Labor is strictly enforcing racial and gender quotas. And the Federal Reserve, along with the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (created by the Dodd-Frank law) is practically freezing small-business lending.

This president has spun fantasies about the industries of tomorrow, while punishing the industries of today. His fulminations against "millionaires and billionaires" and his wrath about "corporate jets" betray a fundamentally childish urge to punish success. Under his economic stewardship, there is less and less of that around.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-32 last
To: Kaslin
There are some on the right who believe that Barack Obama is intentionally steering the United States into disaster -- that he privately rejoices in the dismal economy because it partially fulfills his objective to bring the country down.

She should have stopped there rather than trying to prove otherwise.

Did she not hear obama during his campaign? He was very clear about his intentions, just look at the people he surrounded himself with once in office.

Did she not research his background, his mentors and those he has surrounded himself with and what their beliefs and goals are, especially of those who financed him?

Is she not even slightly curious about his actively hiding everything about his past, even his birth, and why?

With all of the above questions, combined with his job performance, do you really believe he's not patting himself on the back for exceeding his wildest hopes and dreams?

If anything obama is 'unexpected', it's that he has succeeded as well as he has. Wake up!!!

21 posted on 08/02/2011 6:24:08 AM PDT by GBA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mr Ramsbotham

I believe they did clap each other on the back. And the reason is twofold.

The first, as demonstrated by Nancy Pelosi is in this time of crisis, her portfolio increased in value by 62%. What did Geithner’s and the rest of their portfolios increase by?

The second is the “fairness factor”. Everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others. Everyone in this country who earns a decent living has been brought down a peg and on January 1, 2012 will be brought down even further. “Fair to thee but not for me.”

My daddy, said, “if it walked like a commie, and talked like a commie you probably aren’t looking at Ronald Reagan.”

Obama been talking the Commie game since the 80’s. Based on his speeches and actions, why would we expect anything else?

Folks, we are after the wrong people. The Soviet Union fell for one and only one reason. The people finally got the information that was hidden from them by the media for 70 years.

YOu want to know why this administration wants net neutraility, broadband installations and access to shut down websites?

“Control the information, Control the people”


22 posted on 08/02/2011 6:34:09 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (As long as the MSM covers for Obama, he will be above the law)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The mere fact that an article is written with this title is a sad tribute to how clueless American society is. It should be obvious “Why Obama’s Economy Won’t Improve” — with a reluctant hat tip to Mr. Carville, it’s the policies, stupid.

I don’t think it really matters whether Barry is intentionally trying to tank the economy, or intentionally trying to remake America; both are happening at an alarming rate.


23 posted on 08/02/2011 6:40:30 AM PDT by FourPeas ("Maladjusted and wigging out is no way to go through life, son." -hg)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Sure, Obama wouldn't have minded economic growth, as there would be more government revenue. But if Obama could go back in time and do it again, knowing the disastrous outcome, he'd do exactly the same. Same stupid 'stimulus', Obamacare, regulations. Same 2010 Democrat defeat as well.

It's not to help the economy, or even his Party's short term political fortune.

Not to be overwrought or anything, Mona, but what is the purpose?

24 posted on 08/02/2011 6:58:32 AM PDT by Plutarch
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

obama will not do the obvious things that would improve the economy.


25 posted on 08/02/2011 7:15:24 AM PDT by ken21 (ruling class dem + rino progressives -- destroying america for 150 years.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
The time is right to do what the American people want us to do, focus on the private sector, jobs, and real stimulus.

We have the House, we should begin to play offense now.

The House should propose stimulative measures to revive the economy.

Suggestions:

First pass legislation that begins to remove regulatory obstacles to drilling for oil-in the Gulf, our coasts, plus Alaska.

Lower cap gains to 5% to aid commercial real estate, investing, risk-taking, and thus construction.

Reduce corporate rate on repatriated foreign profits for domestic firms to 15%. Nearly $800 billion could come back home.

All these measures are free lunches-meaning that they would increase economic activity while also increasing revenues to the treasury.

Whether we can get them through the Senate or not is irrelevant, let’s let the American people see that we have solutions, and make the Democrats play defense.

26 posted on 08/02/2011 7:20:26 AM PDT by wayoverontheright
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

We are facing a renewed bout of Stagflation, just like we did in the 1970s because of high energy prices. Until we get energy prices under control, we are not going to have a recovery.


27 posted on 08/02/2011 7:28:31 AM PDT by MNJohnnie (Giving politicians more tax money is like giving addicts free drugs to cure their addiction)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wayoverontheright
We have the House, we should begin to play offense now.

Exactly we need our "Leadership" to quit being so weak. They continually look to the White House and the Senate for direction. Past time for them to start passing good legislation and make the 0 Dems explain their opposition to the voters

28 posted on 08/02/2011 7:30:41 AM PDT by MNJohnnie (Giving politicians more tax money is like giving addicts free drugs to cure their addiction)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Dickie Morris had it nailed this morning on Fox. The only way Obama can turn the economy around is to backtrack on Obamacare, financial reform and all his other regulation. And to do so would be repudiating his entire Presidency. So he really is boxed-in at this point.


29 posted on 08/02/2011 7:31:30 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tax-chick
Mona, like all of us, is facing the “evil or stupid” conundrum.

Its no conundrum for me - He's both.

They are not mutually exclusive.

30 posted on 08/02/2011 8:05:10 AM PDT by CharacterCounts (November 4, 2008 - the day America drank the Kool-Aid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Are these people so stupid that they don’t understand just what Zero believes?

Obama’s Coup To Destroy Capitalism and Force Socialism By Using The Cloward Piven Strategy

First proposed in 1966 and named after Columbia University sociologists Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, the “Cloward-Piven Strategy” seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.

http://romanticpoet.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/obamas-coup-to-destroy-capitalism-and-force-socialism-by-using-the-cloward-piven-strategy/


31 posted on 08/02/2011 8:10:23 AM PDT by CynicalBear
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CharacterCounts
They are not mutually exclusive.

No, they aren't. However, it seems like it would be difficult for someone as stupid as Zero appears to be to do so much damage intentionally, so there's definitely a suggestion that he's a tool of some brighter people.

32 posted on 08/02/2011 8:12:06 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Do you know why I love reptiles? It's because they don't play guitars.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-32 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson