The higher jobless rate could be the new normal” reads the headline of a recent AP report. Further down we read:
“Even with an economic revival, many U.S. jobs lost during the recession may be gone forever and a weak employment market could linger for years.”
The report’s message is clear. It will be a long time before we recover our former prosperity. Things, in fact, may never be as good as they used to be, at least not in our lifetimes But how can this be? After all, it is Barack Obama who is in charge. Less than twelve months ago, the Associated Press and the whole of the mainstream media were selling Obama as the one who would speedily solve this nation’s economic ills. Obama was presented as nothing less than a national savior who had all the right answers.
Writing at CBS, Bonnie Erbe posted a piece in January titled “The Economy Could Actually Turn Around Under Barack Obama.” The piece quoted Jerome Idaszak, associate editor of the Kiplinger Letter, who said: “There’s also a new sense of public confidence in Washington. About 70% of Americans say they are optimistic that the Obama administration will be able to spur growth.” Michael Hirsh of Newswek showed childlike confidence in Obama’s abilities even before he assumed office:
“The new president may think his only task is to rescue the economy. But like FDR, he may have to save capitalism itself.”
How do we, then, explain AP’s present lack of hope in a better tomorrow? It would seem that they are coming to realize that the Messiah of yesterday is making a mess of things today.
To be fair, Barack Obama has been dealt a difficult hand. He has repeatedly said that this crisis was years in the making and in that he is correct. But it should be noted that it has been brought on by the very policies he subscribes to. This crisis, as almost all other economic crises, has been caused by government. The housing bubble – the bursting of which set things off – was a government creation. Inflated by a combination of unsupportably low interest rates – set by the Federal Reserve – and Congress’ misguided desire to increase home ownership among low income people, it was a governmentally-induced phenomenon from beginning to end.
Even though Obama was not a major player when those policies were enacted, they were precisely the kind of measures he has always stood for. After all, he worked for ACORN, an organization which threatened to shut down banks that did not meet mortgage quotas for low income earners. So while it is true that Obama did not personally bring about the crisis, the policies he espouses most certainly did.
In any case, now that Barack Obama is in power he is doing everything he can to drive the economy off the cliff and into the ground. David Horowitz recently made a strong case on Glenn Beck that Obama is a far-left radical who poses a great danger to this country. Nowhere is this more obvious than on the economic front. So ruinous have Obama’s actions been that if a Hugo Chavez or some other America hater were given an opportunity to call the shots, he could hardly outdo the president in the destructiveness of his policies. Working relentlessly to impose government control over the American economy and to annihilate the remaining vestiges of the free market, Obama has already wrought untold damage. Nationalizing banks and car companies, debasing the dollar, passing odious business regulations and running up debts that we will never be able to repay are only some of the highlights of Obama’s performance so far.
But all this is just the beginning, because still in the works are two monumentally deleterious schemes – Cap and Trade and Healthcare Reform.
The purported aim of Cap and Trade is to eliminate the nonexistent phenomenon of man-made global warming, but its real goal is to put a stranglehold on the American economy. This will be done under the guise of penalizing those who use energy deriving from fossil fuels. It is rightly said that energy is the lifeblood of the American economy. Significantly, Americans obtain 85 percent of it by burning C02-emitting substances, mainly oil and coal, which is why Cap and Trade would have devastating consequences.
According to analysis by The Heritage Foundation, Cap and Trade “promises serious perils for the American economy for the years and decades ahead.” It would result in the loss of millions of jobs and it would cut trillions of dollars from America’s economic output. Under Cap and Trade the price of gasoline would go up 58 percent and the average household electric rate would increase by 90 percent. Paradoxically, all these immense costs would yield virtually no discernible benefits. More from Heritage:
Climatologists estimate that Waxman-Markey’s impact on world temperature will be too small to even measure in the first several decades. The theoretical moderation of world temperature would be 0.05 degree centigrade by 2050.
All this for less than one tenth of one degree, and even this infinitesimal gain only shows up on models that run on most optimistic assumptions. Looking at all the facts, one cannot but conclude that Cap and Trade is nothing other than a stealth move for the economy’s jugular.
As far as healthcare is concerned, the president’s works are no less destructive. The bill that was passed last Saturday by the House and hailed as a “victory” for Obama contains a provision that would prohibit insurance companies from refusing coverage based on pre-existing health conditions. This is the equivalent of allowing people to buy car insurance after their crash their car or buy fire insurance after their house burns down. Highly controversial, this provision was kept on the urging of President Obama who insisted that it be included in the bill.
If you do not believe that an American president would ever force such an onerous requirement on private businesses, you should refer to an e-mail sent to supporters on August 8 by Obama’s senior advisor David Axelrod. The first bullet point under the heading “8 ways reform provides security and stability to those with or without coverage” reads:
Ends Discrimination for Pre-Existing Conditions: Insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing you coverage because of your medical history.
Clearly no insurance company can operate under such a regime and continue as a viable commercial entity. Obama’s healthcare “reform” would thus end up driving all insurers out of business and eventually leave the government as the sole provider of healthcare in America.
It should be obvious that the American economy cannot survive the implementation of these odious programs as they would vitiate America’s capitalist foundation. This is why the president wants to make their passage his signature achievements.
David Horowitz is all too correct when he writes that Obama’s goal is “the systematic transformation of our nation from an open, capitalist society, to a Big Brother-type socialist nation.” Obama actions prove Horowitz right almost every day as he takes this country down the sewage tubes of socialism. Despite all his flowery promises, the American people have nothing good to look forward to. The president’s media spokesmen know it, and they are dutifully preparing us for the hardships to come.
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