The Obama Economic Phony Speech: Ever Heard This One?

“With an endless parade of distractions, political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball. And I am here to say this needs to stop. Short-term thinking and stale debates are not what this moment requires.”

President Obama

July 24, 2013

 

It is hard not to shake the old noggin when you read quotes like the above from the President. It seems the White House wants to take another tour of the country talking about the economy. However, I am not sure anyone is listening nor takes any of the rhetoric seriously. It has all been said before.

The U.S. overall economy is improving. The great economic engine has slowly been revering up, in spite of government policies to impede and ignore it. It was an inevitable consequence of a collection of hard working, motivated, smart people who know how to generate commerce.

But, lets get back to the President. Instead to trying to figure out what can be done to help the economic engine, still largely based on private enterprise-big and small- Mr. Obama want to blame everyone else. Republicans are number one target and always have been. If it were not for those awful, evil Republicans things would be better. Greedy, racists, and uncaring all of them.

He cannot even convince his own party in Congress on supporting his policies. So the best way is to go back to campaigning. Chose some controlled venue and dust off the old speeches. This one only made it to page A-16 of the Obama subsidiary New York Times even after all the promotion and buildup. Nothing new here boys and girls, move along. 

So what does the President suggest to help promote economic growth? As best I can tell, he want more of what he has always wanted- higher taxes, more money for public works, heavily subsidized renewable energy for his political contributor friends and investment in education (which I think means more union jobs).

What has he done to promote economic growth? A couple of things. Push the haphazard implementation of a national health care law that most of the public is against, illegally ignoring the parts that are politically painful before the next election. As far as I can tell the Affordable Health Care act will only increase the cost of insurance, make health care choices more limited, and force employers to turn full time workers into part times. Oh, I forgot add to the deficit.

How about instructing the EPA to eliminate the use of coal electricity generation, eventually raising the price of energy and driving manufacturing further abroad. How about ignoring the job creating Keystone pipeline? How about positively doing something about a tax system that is incredibly broken?

 I do not blame Mr. Obama for trying to change the subject in Washington. But phony is not the word here. Since the beginning of the year we have learned of deceptions in the Benghazi tragedy, spying on the press, gathering data on our emails and phone calls, unleashing the IRS on political opponents. Trusting and believing in government solutions has become a fool’s game and a joke for late night television

Mr. Obama wants to address the economy. He will have his chance. Congressional appropriation bills coming up, debt limit coming up, tax reform in the wings, next round of sequester coming up, federal deficit ongoing. Plenty of opportunity to exert leadership and do something constructive, but I would not count on it. It is those evil Republicans, you see.