The American Spectator

The Public Policy

Down With Trickle Down

By Joseph Lawler on 8.25.08 @ 12:07AM

(Page 2 of 2)

Obamanomics is riddled with similar absurdities. Talbott suggests that the vast numbers of Americans abandoning the precepts of religion -- a wild and erroneous assumption that he takes as self-evident -- can substitute Obama's bottom-up economy for their moral needs. Perhaps his most laughable claim comes when he outlines the greatest threats facing the world economy. He places Animal Rights, threat number 13 (a very ambiguous threat, to say the least), far ahead of Terrorism, threat number 25. No explanation is given for this ordering.

The book is a mess because Obama's economic theories are all about buying votes. Talbott should have recognized that a populist candidate isn't going to promote a coherent economic agenda. Thus, there is no unified "Obamanomics" for him to explicate.

In fact, Talbott is hamstrung in a few examples by Obama's pandering. In one typical passage beginning with "Obama believes," Talbott preaches, "it has to be unjust that campaign contributions dominate our elections, because it violates the theory of one man one vote." How was Talbott to know Obama would forgo public funding in order to spend enormous sums on his own election?

Attempts are made to shoehorn Obama's "bottom-up" economics into some sort of meaningful unified theory. Ultimately it's not possible to do so without embracing socialism, and indeed Talbott conflates "economic justice," "ethical behavior," and "productivity." He buys wholeheartedly into the easily debunked myth that the free market has decreased workers' wages since 1973 and says that the time has come for the government to step in as, in Obama's words, "my brother's keeper."

Under an Obama administration, says this acolyte, big brother will be watching out for you.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Barack Obama, Economics, Religion, Law, Socialism, Oil