Four years ago, Barack Obama chose to use ten, grandiose, Greek columns as the backdrop for his speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. The staging was a rather clumsy effort to substitute showmanship and theatre to help disguise Mr. Obama’s hostility towards American enterprise.
What many Americans watching the Obama speech four years ago may not have realized was that Obama’s fake Greek columns were a bad omen of things to come. Mr. Obama was about to put the United States on the same economic path as Greece.
Watching Greece try to solve its insolvency problems over the past three years offers a terrifying roadmap of Barack Obama's vision for America. Why? Many of the problems which led to Greece's collapse can be seen in Obama's policies and platform promises over the past four years.
For example, much of Greece's problems have been caused by an unsustainable and counterproductive growth in the public sector and in labor unions. The Greek unions' demands have become more exorbitant over the years and place an extraordinary burden on the Greek government which can no longer sustain the silly and irrational policies once promised. Sadly, Mr. Obama has not only borrowed fake Greek columns, but he has adopted the same economic nonsense.
Under Obama, the public sector has experienced explosive growth, even as federal spending has ballooned out of control. The bloated Stimulus spending, Dodd-Frank FinReg and Obamacare all come with requirements that expand the number of federal entities and the number of federal employees, while erecting additional bureaucratic burdens and increasing the regulatory madness that stifles economic growth. Add to that the increase in the number of czars and their staff supporting Obama's special interests’ lobbies, and it is easy to see that our country's current path isn't too far off from Greece.
Under Obama, the labor unions within the federal government and in the private sector have grown increasingly powerful, demanding more and more benefits, and providing less and less services in exchange. One only has to look at the stranglehold that teachers' unions have over education, and see the sad result. In 2011, America ranked 20th in the world in education, and 74th in the world with the number of students graduating with science and engineering degrees. Compare that to 20 years ago when U.S. was number 1 in the world.
Greece has been guilty of out-of-control spending. Their national deficit as a percentage of GDP has continued to escalate over the past decade. How is that so different than what Obama has endorsed as a path for the U.S.? Obama's profligate spending on a Stimulus that didn't stimulate and almost 5 trillion dollars spent in four years have brought this nation to the point where our public debt, exceeds our GDP and still, our nation’s government continues to demand increases to the debt ceiling to continue its deficit spending.
As if these similarities with Greece were not enough, consider long-sustained, and growing unemployment in the US, and the growing underground economy of illegal immigrants and workers who cannot be taxed, but who tax the social services systems of the country and require expanded entitlements. Is becoming more like Greece, with escalating unemployment, really the kind of hope and change that the American people wanted?
Lastly, add to this recipe for disaster, the U.S.' inability to balance our finances, relying instead on an ever-growing need of borrowing from other countries. Four years in office and still Mr. Obama has not yet offered a budget that does not require trillions of dollars in additional deficit spending during each year he has been in office.
As a result, after four years of Mr. Obama’s inept economic leadership, America finds itself dependent upon foreign borrowings and the largess of other nations.
Americans are likely to see Mr. Obama, along with the other Democrat leaders, continue to advance this failed “Greek economic strategy”, believing that an economic day of reckoning will never occur. Democrat leaders do not seem to think they will ever need to turn to the American people, and confess that the government has made promises--wild, extravagant promises--that it cannot afford. Instead, Democrat leaders plan to increase the borrowings forever.
Make no mistake: Mr. Obama has foolishly put the country on the same economic path as Greece, and Americans will face the harsh realities of irresponsible government spending. We should have paid far more attention to those fake Greek columns Mr. Obama used as props four years ago; they were strangely and sadly prophetic.
Democrat leaders are now anxious to avoid any comparison to the Greek economic tragedy that they have so fully embraced over the past four years of economic mismanagement. So don’t expect to see those columns in Charlotte.
Obama cannot run a re-election campaign in 2012 based on his previous, record of failure, so he can only continue to make extravagant promises in exchange for votes. Nor has Barack Obama managed " to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet", as Mitt Romney pointed out in his acceptance speech at the GOP convention.
Three things are certain: whatever Obama promises at this year’s convention, (a) he won't be able to deliver on those promises without crushing 50% of America's taxpayers, (b) Obama's promised actions will diminish the prestige of America in the world and (c) these promises will involve spending more money that the government doesn't have.
My guess is that like any good conjurer, the Greek columns of old will be replaced by yet another backdrop to misdirect attention and help with Mr. Obama’s re election. Americans should not expect to see a backdrop featuring American heritage and historical images. Mr. Obama does not seem to hold the Constitution or the work of the early founders in high regard.
Perhaps the Greek columns of old will be replaced by something new--perhaps Aztec symbols and architecture? After all, Mr. Obama is determined to attract Hispanic voters and he may figure allusions to Aztecs will put him over the top.
Then too, the Aztec worship of the sun should play well with extreme, left-wing eco groups and help potential voters to forget about the Solyndra debacle as Mr. Obama doubles down on an energy policy that inhibits the use of our own natural resources in favor of huge and growing federal subsidies to favored constituents.
Of course, Mr. Obama will hope that no one will recall that failed leadership doomed the Aztec empire and led to its collapse.