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The Spectacle Blog
With the economy sluggish and stagnating, you would think that economic growth ranks high on President Obama’s list of priorities for a second term. But of course, you would be wrong. Lefty Ezra Klein, who writes about economic policy for the Washington Post, has just published a well-sourced piece on “what Obama would do in a second term,” and the words “economic growth” are nowhere to be found.
This is no accident. With all due respect to the president, he is dangerously ignorant about economic matters. Indeed, he knows nothing about incentives and job creation, fiscal and monetary policy. Which is why we are suffering through the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression.
The most recent jobs report, in fact, found that the labor force participation rate — that is, the percentage of working-age people with a job or actively looking for work — declined to 63.6 percent in April. “That monthly decrease was the third in a row; and [it] marked the lowest level for that measure since December 1981,” reports Thomas Olson in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Oh, to be sure, according to Klein, “Everyone from Obama’s closest advisers to the GOP’s top tacticians agrees that the first year of a second term — and perhaps even more than that — would be ‘fiscal.’ That is to say, it would be devoted to budget and tax issues.”
But raising taxes to fund the behemoth state — which is clearly what Obama has in mind for a second term — doesn’t promote economic growth. And so, debt reduction, in itself, doesn’t necessarily help anyone. What matters is how the debt is reduced or managed.
If the debt is managed in a way that incentivizes the entrepreneurial class and the free market, then that is a good thing. This will promote economic growth and job creation. But if debt reduction becomes simply a convenient excuse to punish entrepreneurs and innovators with higher taxes and ill-advised regulation, then economic growth and job creation will suffer.
Yet, “beyond the deficit,” reports Klein, “Obama’s advisers see two big unfinished pieces of business from the first term: climate change and immigration reform.”
Climate change and immigration “reform”? Excuse me, but the biggest piece of “unfinished business” is economic growth, without which everything else becomes impossible. And if the president doesn’t understand this, then it’s time for a new president. Now.
View all comments (13) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by John R. Guardiano
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/05/06/a-clueless-obama-abandons-econ
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Kenny| 5.6.12 @ 5:54PM
Obama is dangerously ignorant about everything -- except how to party and vacation on other people's money.
Now maybe people will see the absurdity of affirmative action admissions into college.
I firmly believe if you were to sit down with Obama and quiz him on high school algebra, American history, foreign languages, or anything academic, you'd be shocked at how stupid this man actually is. Not only ignorant but unable to think logical.
smokedaddy| 5.7.12 @ 4:37PM
Agreed. OTOH, there've been lots of great political leaders who've been as dumb as a rock (FDR for example) and been extremely astute and sometimes dangerous at getting things done in line with their vision. Obama is not from the streets, but he does have street smarts to go along with his left-wing tunnel vision. Academically though, you're right.
Jeff P| 5.6.12 @ 6:23PM
Except for electoral concerns, Obama and the Left couldn't care less about economic growth. Their entire agenda revolves around redistribution, and frankly prosperity isn't desirable from that point of view: no need to redistribute if everyone has plenty already. I am sure the left would be fine with a much smaller economy as long as they got to determine who gets what.
RJ| 5.6.12 @ 7:01PM
Bingo.
Obama campaigned for "change" not recovery. As he told "Joe the Plumber," his plan is to spread the wealth around. Whether Obama understand economics is irrelevant. His interest is in state control, not economic prosperity.
Richard Baker| 5.6.12 @ 7:36PM
No wonder he refuses to release his curriculum vitae. He shows his mediocre "intellectual" talents every day.
John - TMF| 5.6.12 @ 8:22PM
That's okay really. Because the clueless stupid French just elected a Socialist as their President. Since socialists are craven as well as clueless, I expect little else.
The dissolution of the Western world continues apace.
Look for Angela Merkel to get "Sarkoed" soon enough. As Europe bankrupts and descends into a fractured squabbling continent of weak socialist governments and restless violent serfs, our ability to maintain any sort of peaceful order will increasingly depend on our military presence in Europe... unless we disarm ourselves and abandon it.
We will be back there fighting another war within a generation, and the enemy might not be exactly the same as those encountered in prior generations.
Europe, or most important trading partners outside of Canada returns to fractious violent antagonism.
Plus ca change. Plus ca le meme chose.
R/John - TMF
Clint| 5.6.12 @ 9:35PM
Dr.Ron Paul,
" Private capital – whether accumulated by profitable U.S. businesses, invested by private equity and venture capital firms, or attracted from abroad – is the key to economic growth and new jobs. But we cannot create jobs if we demonize profits, punish risk-taking capitalists, and stay hostile to foreign investment."
Pete| 5.6.12 @ 9:37PM
Obama plans on blaming Bush for 4 years, disbanding Congress and appointing his successor.
Occam's Tool| 5.6.12 @ 11:00PM
What recovery? The only reason that the stock market is going up is that the value of a dollar is down.
David W| 5.7.12 @ 8:26AM
"With all due respect to the president?"
Do you mean the office or the economically ignorant puppet in the office?
smokedaddy| 5.7.12 @ 4:31PM
What's scarier- that our president is a true believing, dedicated alinskyite socialist? Or that one can be a writer at American Spectator and still hope for otherwise?
MorrowRosanna| 5.7.12 @ 7:00PM
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Sean| 5.7.12 @ 8:16PM
Do none of you remember the babbling baboon y'all elected for TWO TERMS?!