James Taranto, the WSJ "Best of the Web" editor, has a recurring bit where he gives inspiring quotations from past Democratic Presidents--and then quotes the latest bit of lunacy from Congressional Democrats. I begin this post with a relevant contrast:
Recall FDR said in his first inaugural address that the "only thing we have to fear is fear itself".
Obama, in his oxymoronic essay titled "The Action Americans Need", wrote:
Because each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse.That's why I feel such a sense of urgency about the recovery plan before Congress. With it, we will create or save more than 3 million jobs over the next two years, provide immediate tax relief to 95 percent of American workers, ignite spending by businesses and consumers alike, and take steps to strengthen our country for years to come.
His tone and words were even more strident and hyperbolic during Thursday comments at the Energy Department and echoed in his Saturday address:
If we don't move swiftly to put this plan in motion, our economic crisis could become a national catastrophe. Millions of Americans will lose their jobs, their homes, and their health care. Millions more will have to put their dreams on hold.Obama's panic-stricken "Chicken Little" rhetoric is irresponsible and unworthy of American leadership. Contrast this to George Bush's attempt to reassure consumers in the aftermath of 9/11 when the airline and hospitality industries were devastated by a paralysis of travel fear and the world economy teetered on the edge of global deflation and depression. This attempt by the inexperienced, unknowledgeable President to pay little more than lip service to legitimate bipartisan negotiation and to intimidate debate on wasteful, non-stimulative government spending in a "bait-and-switch" so-called stimulus package is a disservice to the American taxpayer, including future generations of citizens on whose backs a check is being written.
We need a serious discussion of what exactly is meant to be a stimulus. Socialistic nonsense, such as Obama's reference to giving 95% of American workers "tax cuts" (when 40% or so of those pay only payroll tax, which is really a mandatory retirement plan from which they'll reap direct benefit), is the exact opposite of what we need: evidence that last year's stimulus bill went mostly towards savings or retiring debt shows it really wasn't all that stimulative. On the other hand, investment and business tax cuts would attract capital back into the markets. There is no doubt that some infrastructure spending could be conducive to future growth, in particular, investments in the electrical power grid, broadband initiatives, and road and bridge repairs. But Obama's attempts to sell green power initiatives as "job creators", profitable only because of federal funding, while stonewalling attempts to develop proven oil and gas reserves, and hence keeping energy dollars in America than feeding the treasuries of autocratic regimes, profitable and job growth stimulative with today's technology, are also disingenuous.
Obama's pretentious, indignant campaign-style message has grown stale. Insisting that government, not business, knows better how to create jobs, that general Democratic spending priorities, including those without short-term deployment, are a necessary, sufficient stimulus, that high-pressure tactics are appropriate to use in spending nearly a trillion dollars which must ultimately be repaid by future taxpayers, without asking the federal government to show the same type of budgetary constraints faced by businesses and state/local governments which don't own a printing press: Obama is not showing the kind of leadership that we need. Talking down the economy and showing impatience because the Congress won't rubberstamp a bloated pork-laden spending bill, any spending bill is nothing short of impetuous and desperate behavior.
Mr. President, you would do well to remember the story of the boy whom cried "wolf" one too many times. We've seen this type of high pressure tactics before in Democrats' insisting that tax cheat Tim Geithner was uniquely qualified to be Treasury Secretary. You don't seem to learn from historical experience (e.g., the failed 2008 stimulus package, the utter incompetence of the TARP management, and many economists' opinion that FDR's New Deal programs were actually counterproductive in getting us out of the Great Depression). Setting unrealistic expectations for the commercial viability of green technologies is not responsible; do you honestly believe that you can give lower/middle-income taxpayers a "tax cut" (which must be repaid by future Americans) while at the same time expect that they don't notice that utopian green technology policies will greatly increase their energy costs?
