On January 20, 2009, Barack Hussein Obama was inaugurated becoming the 44th President of the United States. The electorate was atwitter with promises of hope and change; however Mr. Obama’s first term would be less hope and more change.
Obama’s inauguration was a preview of what was to come. Breaking all records, the Obama Inaugural Committee raised over $53 million to fund the event, however demolished all earlier records of cost by ringing up a $170 million dollar bill, netting the taxpayers a tidy $117 million dollar loss amidst the worst economic downturn in more than 70 years; not the most auspicious start.
Obama campaigned using the slogan “Change We Can Believe In” and change we got. Did anyone listening as Obama gave his inaugural address consider what his plans would actually mean to the country, or were they blinded by their awe of Obama?
“The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories,” Obama said in January 2009 to the teary-eyed crowd.
Now, in retrospect, the true meaning of his words is all too clear.
Obama’s first move was to re-engineer the economy with more than $750 billion of stimulus that was neither stimulative nor created a framework from which the economy could grow. More than 2 years after the largest economic stimulus package in American history the President admitted his touted “shovel-ready” projects “weren’t so shovel-ready.”
An anticipated explosion in infrastructure projects never materialized. Rather than an increase in commerce we’ve been subjected to near flat-line economic activity. How’s the solar and wind power working for you? Three-quarters of a million dollars frittered away and we stand on the brink of a double-dip recession.
Instead of a leap in medical technology lowering the costs of health care, we’ve watched as a legislature controlled by the President’s party passed a health care bill into law intended to attack the health insurance industry while wrapping the government’s inept hands around our medical security. From a market-based health care industry we’ve been placed on a path to government controlled health care causing immediate spikes in insurance premiums, dozens of lawsuits, states without a clear path forward and businesses without certainty on their future expenses; a perfect recipe for dismal job growth.
More than 925 days since Mr. Obama was sworn into office and with the debt-ceiling debate behind him, Obama is now promising, once again, to dedicate his focus on jobs; but for this President it is far too late. “Americans want us to get this economy growing and adding jobs,” the President said while announcing the debt ceiling deal.
In his 2010 State of the Union Obama promised to make jobs his “Number 1 focus.” Eighteen months later, with a worsening economy, business leaders counting the days till the end of his administration and Republicans lining up to get a shot at him in the next election, Mr. Obama is getting economic religion, again.
If you consider the multi-million job number growth claimed by the administration as heading in the right direction, consider one simple fact: the economy is creating roughly 94,000 jobs per month when at least 125,000 need to be created just to keep pace with population growth; effectively each month since the President’s 2010 State of the Union Speech 31,000 Americans have hit the unemployment rolls. Add to the President’s woes is the fact that those that are unemployed are staying unemployed. Currently the jobless are out of work, on average, nearly 40 weeks, which is 30 percent longer than when Mr. Obama made speech in January 2010.
President Bush left Mr. Obama with a particularly bad economy due to a number of factors from run-away spending to government directed housing programs that overheated the real estate market through questionable lending practices coupled with Wall Street excesses. As Reverend Wright, Mr. Obama’s mentor said, “America’s chicken’s have come home to roost,” however in this instance it’s not terrorism but a reckless and ineffectual government that sealed our fate.
With Mr. Bush’s example, a logical choice would be to take a different course, yet Mr. Obama’s political compass said when approaching a cliff, nail the accelerator. Even Obama’s supporters now realize that “Change we can believe in,” means changes we’ll be funding for the next 3 decades, an economy in decline and the implementation of the Progressive’s all-knowing, all-controlling government plans for America.
Perhaps Mr. Obama never imagined himself as a two-term President, but rather a historic figure that would alter America for all time. What Obama may not realize is that no President, be they viewed as a success or failure, can change the basic values that make America unique among all countries. Each President sets a course that their successors or congresses can easily re-route. If a President wishes to have long-lasting effect on the country they need to study Thomas Jefferson and Ronald Reagan who both understood that government doesn’t elevate the lives of its citizens but rather creates barriers to their aspirations. A government which wishes to promote individual success need only get out-of-the-way.
Mr. Obama’s 3rd rendition of job creation is a clear sign that he doesn’t understand that government cannot foster the creation of jobs in the private sector only deter it. Yet there is a way that Mr. Obama can advance job growth in the commercial sector and that would be to prove to business that he is willing to change direction, close America’s wallet and stop burdening them with overwhelming regulation and unpredictable employee costs. Don’t hold your breath.