Obama Won't Propose One New Thing

President Obama is promising a post-Labor Day "jobs push" and will be addressing the nation on jobs at that time. My biggest question is, who cares?

“Right after Labor Day, President Obama will speak to the nation about the labor situation, a senior administration official told CNN on Wednesday.

The president plans to deliver a speech about a package of new initiatives designed to grow the economy and create jobs, then he'll spend the fall pushing Congress to pass those measures, the official said.

The Obama administration has not finalized that package, but it's likely to include some tax cuts, infrastructure ideas that could create jobs, and measures targeting the long-term unemployed and specific struggling economic sectors, the official said.” - CNN

Again, my first question is who cares? The president has addressed the nation multiple times in his presidency and has, to the best of my recollection, never said anything we didn't already know. He almost said something we didn't know when he announced OBL's death--but due to his standard tardiness to his own speeches, the news had already been leaked by the time he took the podium.

Next, it's a virtual certainty that nothing that he announces in his address will work to create jobs. That's because he inherently doesn't understand the economy and how jobs are created, and he inevitably thinks government can create jobs--despite over two years of evidence to the contrary.

Infrastructure spending? We had an $800 billion stimulus that was supposed to include spending on infrastructure.

A measure targeting the long-term unemployed? I suppose he means extending unemployment benefits... again? Yet every time we extend long-term unemployment benefits, it seems we get more long-term unemployed persons.

Measures targeting specific struggling sectors? Pretty much every sector of the economy is struggling. Thus measures that target specific sectors most likely won't be on merit, but on the subjective (and maybe political) opinion of Obama as to where the government should interfere.

Tax cuts? While I'm in favor of (permanent) lower taxes, our economy, businesses, and job growth aren't stalled due to high taxes. Everything is stalled because of uncertainty and fear as to what this administration will do next.

Despite Obama's claims that the economy is suffering due to things outside his control (earthquakes, tsunamis, Arab Springs, European debt crisis, etc.), the truth is that it's the economic policies of this administration that are destroying this economy and stunting job growth by creating uncertainty.

If Obama truly wants to do something that will encourage job growth, he should propose legislation that makes all current tax rates permanent. Not temporarily lower, not higher on certain demographics--just affirm that they will not change. He should then repeal Obamacare. Then, he can get out of the way and go play golf for the next year while the economy heals itself from the damage he's done to it.

And, yet, we know he won't do that--even though he would have a reasonable shot at reelection if he did. We know he won't not just because we know what Obama believes and how little he knows about economics, but because the same CNN article closed with this paragraph:

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“The official said the president will offer a detailed deficit reduction package that goes beyond the $1.5 trillion mandate of the committee. It would not only fully cover the cost of the jobs and growth measures, but also achieve additional balanced deficit reduction, the official said.” - CNN

So from that we can conclude that the "jobs and growth measures" will cost money (which means they involve spending... which is the problem, not the solution), and we know that the president will be proposing increasing taxes since that's what he means when he says "balanced deficit reduction" or a "balanced approach."

So though he will apparently be completing his Martha's Vineyard vacation before addressing the problem of Americans that are on "long-term vacations," we can already be confident that Obama will say nothing of interest in his address to the nation... and that his latest "pivot" to jobs will fail as resoundingly as his previous pivots.

John Ransom | Create Your Badge

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