Remember the old saying “you are what you eat?” Well, in President Obama’s America, you are what the federal government says you are.
Throughout last week’s debate, the President constantly referred to what he would do or how the government would take action. While giving lip service to America’s free enterprise system, he said “I also believe that everybody should have a fair shot and everybody should do their fair share and everybody should play by the same rules, because that's how our economy is grown.”
Who defines what is a fair shot? President Obama. Who decides if you’re doing your fair share? President Obama.
His message – and arguably his philosophical core – is that the government is in a better position to help you and than you are to help yourself.
When questioned on “inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females” – a dubious and factually challenged premise – President Obama fell into a common refrain, touting federal action. He told Katherine Fenton that “this is one of the reasons why one of the first -- the first bill I signed was something called the Lily Ledbetter bill.”
As Heritage explained earlier this year, “When work experience, education, occupation, and hours of work are taken into account, the average woman makes 98 cents for every dollar earned by a man.” That not only makes the President’s government-centric answer seem absurd, but it provides the proper context for Mitt Romney’s answer, which emphasized a strong economy and “adapting to a flexible work schedule that gives women opportunities that they would otherwise not be able to afford.”
After the debate, President Obama’s former green jobs czar Van Jones told CNN that “America’s government should be a partner to American mothers” and we should “make sure by law.” Huh? I guess you can expect a knock on your door followed by, “ma’am, we’re from the post office and we’re here to help you raise your kids.”
Obviously this goes beyond how to raise our children and what type of binders we keep our women in. Just take the most recent attack on conservative Medicare reform. Heritage explains the new hit piece by the Kaiser Family Foundation essentially “assumes that an entire class of Americans—senior citizens—is insensitive to price.”
The statist argument goes like this: once seniors pick a plan, as they have done with Medicare Part D, they rarely switch even when other options are available. Now, a new poll finds that 90% of seniors are happy with their Part D coverage, but happiness be damned because the statists think seniors aren’t choosing the most cost-effective plans.
Oh, while we’re on health care, do remember President Obama’s “play by the same rules” line? Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) recently pointed out that “Obamacare exempted Medigap insurance – a market AARP dominates – from virtually all its new mandates, including the ban on preexisting condition discrimination.”
Of course, none of us should be surprised. This is the logical conclusion of the professional left’s crony-infused “you didn’t build that” philosophy.
Speaking of cronyism, President Obama said, “we're helping them and small businesses to export all around the world to new markets.” To be clear, small businesses were exporting to countries around the world before 2009. Some were even using taxpayer-backed loans courtesy of the Export-Import Bank, which is the basis of the President’s claim…a claim dripping with hypocrisy.
In 2008, then-Senator Obama called the ExIm Bank “little more than a fund for corporate welfare.” In the course of making his case to the American people that he deserves four more years, he is now praising the very same corporate welfare he derided four years earlier. Notice that he is emphasizing the small business aspect, as opposed to the airlines and Fortune 500 companies that continue to benefit.
What is an example of a small business benefiting? Well, a coffee shop owner in Seattle got a taxpayer-backed loan “to start a business in his native country of Ethiopia to sell milk.” Taxpayers are backing the financing of the milk-related equipment, which is made in America. Under the guise of increasing exports, you are essentially betting on a startup milk distribution business in Ethiopia. Brilliant!
President Obama also had this gem during last week’s debate: “I want to build manufacturing jobs in this country again.” The irony here is that he never built manufacturing jobs in America to begin with.
The bottom line, though, is that President Obama has a very Washington-centric view of the economy, health care and even women. He firmly believes that the bureaucrats in Washington can dictate the future of America’s economy, make your health care decisions and make binderless women happy.
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