Once Again No Program and Lies, Lies Lies from Obama

In another of his periodic speeches about how he is now going to focus on the economy, president Obama offered nothing new and plenty of the old favorites.

Number one on the list of favorites was Obama's tossing out lies.  Obama was busy assigning the failure to achieve economic growth on congressional Republicans.  Here is how he put it:

“With this endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals, Washington’s taken its eye off the ball, and I am here to say this needs to stop. This needs to stop. This moment does not require short-term thinking. It does not require having the same old stale debates. Our focus has to be on the basic economic issues that matter most to you — the people we represent.”

Just think about what the president of the United States just said.  First, Washington is focused on distractions, political posturing and phony (PHONY!!!) scandals.  It is hard to know where to begin a response, but let's just look at the distractions that keep Washington from focusing on the economy.

First, there is gun control.  This consumed most of the first three months of the year and nothing was accomplished.  Gun control was pushed by Obama and the Obamacrats.  So much for distraction number one.  Second came immigration.  This issue has consumed most of the time since gun control went down to defeat.  Again, this is pushed by Obama and the Obamacrats.  So much for distraction number two.  During the six months, we also had the effective date for sequestration.  This was Obama's idea to begin with, but he falsely tried to claim that the GOP was responsible for it.  Then Republicans in the House moved forward with legislation that would have given the president the ability to shift the tiny sequestration cuts around so as to lessen the impact on the public of any reduction in spending; Obama threatened to veto any such legislation.  Who was posturing there?  Indeed, after coming to a big agreement on taxation levels at the end of December, Obama immediately demanded higher taxes as part of a sequestration deal even though he knew from the beginning that it was dead on arrival in the House.  Again, who was posturing there?  In short, the distractions and the posturing come principally from Obama.

So let's say that Obama is now serious about moving forward to help the economy grow.  What is his program?  Here is how the New York Times, one of Obama's staunchest supporters, describe that program:
      

The president mainly offered revived elements of his largely stalled economic program, like developing new energy, rebuilding manufacturing, spending more on roads, bridges and ports, expanding preschool to every 4-year-old in the country and raising the minimum wage.

 

So the Times says that Obama offered the same old stale ideas that were the subject of those same old stale debates that Obama just finished lamenting.  Obama wants to develop green energy.  Whoopee!  The problem is that Obama's program to develop this energy was a big part of the first stimulus package.  The USA spent nearly 100 billion dollars and all we got were a bunch of solar energy companies that went bankrupt once the government money ran out.  Oh, we also got a large number of friends and supporters of Obama who made millions due to the government money before those companies went under.

 

Obama wants to spend more on roads, bridges and ports.  Let's try this one again.  Which roads, bridges and ports is he talking about?  Don't you think that after five years in office, Obama could manage to have his staff compile a list so that his proposals had price tags, schedules and at least a little bit of reality attached to them?

 

Obama wants to expand preschool to every 4 year old in the country.  This is, as usual, the best illustration that Obama has no clue how to expand the economy.  First of all, preschool does not help the economy.  Oh, there may be a few thousand more teachers, but that will hardly make a dent in the enormous numbers of the unemployed.  But Obama claims that in the long run the kids will be better prepared for the jobs of the future.  In other words, by the year 2030 or so, this universal preschool will just be beginning to help the economy.  The problem with this, however, is that the Department of Education did a study that showed that any advantage given to children by preschool is gone by the time they get to third grade.  In other words, those workers graduating in 2030 will not have one bit better skills because of the preschool.  Of course, we will have spent hundreds of billions of dollars to get nothing.

 

Obama also wants to raise the minimum wage.  That's great.  Not only will companies with low paid workers make them part time to avoid the Obamacare mandates, but now they will also reduce their staff because wages were forced up by the government.  That is a way to lose jobs not to gain them.

 

Some day, I hope that Obama gives an honest speech.  Some day, I hope he has an actual plan to grow the economy.  That some day, sadly, is not today.