Why should we trust the president and the Democrat-controlled Senate when it comes to our current debt/debt ceiling situation? At every turn, Mr. Obama and his liberal allies in Congress place ideology ahead of everything …including reality.
In the depths of our recession, the president said we needed his spending package of nearly a trillion dollars in order to stimulate the economy and keep unemployment below 8%. The result? Today unemployment stands at 9.2% and economic growth is a weak 1.8%. Should anyone be surprised? No, since every time it has been tried, the Keynsian government spending approach doesn’t work. It failed under FDR during the Great Depression; it failed for Japan in the 1990’s and caused its “Lost Decade” and predictably it failed for President Obama.
Moreover, in 2009 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, with the president’s blessing, pressed to raise the minimum wage. Once again, the liberals’ ideology of fairness caused them to ignore warnings that even a first year economics major understands – raise prices (wages are simply the price of labor) above their equilibrium price and the result is a surplus i.e. unemployment. According the US Bureau of Labor, the youth unemployment rate (the unemployment rate for 16 to 24 year olds) prior to the in July 2009 minimum wage increase was 18.5 percent. By June 2011, that had increased to 21.4%. And who suffered? The very same people the liberals wanted to help – young people and entry-level employees. Once again when ideology takes precedence over reality, the results are predictable. If they bother to report it, the liberal media usually accompanies news like this with the word “unexpected.” Is it really?
To be sure, we are in the midst of a crisis with regard to the debt ceiling but instead of working in good faith with the Republicans to reach an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, the president has used the opportunity to frighten the elderly, demonize the so-called rich and continue to attack American business. Remember “Never let a crisis go to waste?” While the House Republicans have proposed 3 plans now that not only raise the debt ceiling but also help rein in spending in order to actually help solve the underlying problem, the president and the Senate have yet to put a plan on paper. Instead, Mr. Obama advocated a “balanced” approach that called for tax hikes now, an increase in the debt ceiling now and spending cuts in the future. There isn’t a single economic school of thought that prescribes raising taxes in the middle of a recession or during an anemic recovery. In fact, in 2009 President Obama himself said that raising taxes in a recession is irresponsible and come to think of it, while he was a senator, he also called raising the debt ceiling a failure of leadership. Nor does any serious person believe that spending cuts promised for the future will ever materialize. Additionally, the Democrats resorted to the same time pressure tactic that enabled them to push the stimulus package. They established an arbitrary August 2nd date that the government would potentially have to default on its financial obligations. In order to heighten the anxiety in the country, the president implied that the government might not be able to pay social security benefits or make Medicaid and Medicare payments. Here he is either being deliberately disingenuous or unconsciously admitting that these are his lowest priorities since when forced to cut back, most Americans start at the bottom of their priority list.
Now that it appears that a compromise is unlikely by the artificial deadline, miraculously the Treasury announced tonight it has found enough money to postpone default until the 10th of August. Is it any wonder the public is losing confidence in Mr. Obama and his administration?
I agree with those who are calling for our politicians to act like adults. Where I disagree with liberals is when they contend that Obama is the adult in the room. Allowing one’s ideology to triumph over reality, trump the facts and lead one to deliberately exacerbate a serious situation are not what I consider hallmarks of grown-up behavior. On this, I guess my liberal friends and I will have to agree to disagree.
