I keep writing that president Obama has no economic program. Although Obama talks about how Republicans in Congress have blocked his economic programs, he rarely mentions what those programs are. Recently, I have been pointing out that the Republicans did not block Obama's agenda because he has no agenda, he has made no proposals and he seems to be completely at a loss to know what to do to help the economy. I realize that I overstated the position. I said in recent posts that Obama's supposed economic agenda consisted of funding pre-K across the country (something that would not affect the economy in any conceivable way) and also extending emergency unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed. I left out the third part of Obama's agenda. He wants to raised the federal minimum wage.
Raising the minimum wage would affect only a tiny percentage of the American workforce, most of whom are young people who work part time. The estimates from the experts is that raising the minimum wage by $3.00 would result in the loss of over a million of these jobs. Get that? Obama wants to increase the minimum wage to result in fewer people working and more people unemployed. That is the third part of his supposed "economic program".
For what it is worth, raising the minimum wage was proposed in the Democrat controlled Senate. Harry Reid, the leader of the Democrats, would not permit the Senate to vote on that measure. In other words, it was Reid, a Democrat, who blocked the bill. It was not voted down by Republicans at all.
The terrible thing is that there are literally dozens of actions that could be taken to grow the economy. Many do not involve spending even a dime of federal money. Some could cause a major increase in growth, while others would have smaller effects. All would be positive, however.
If we had a president who understood what it means to be president, we would now have a comprehensive program offered to Congress to grow the economy. Indeed, that program would have been presented years ago. Not all of it would have passed, but much of it would. Instead of watching the economy shrink by almost 3% last quarter, we could have seen growth. Millions more people would have jobs. Incomes across the country would be higher. But that would require a president who (1) wants to grow the economy and (2) has some sense how to go about doing that. America does not have such a president. We have Obama. Lucky us!
Raising the minimum wage would affect only a tiny percentage of the American workforce, most of whom are young people who work part time. The estimates from the experts is that raising the minimum wage by $3.00 would result in the loss of over a million of these jobs. Get that? Obama wants to increase the minimum wage to result in fewer people working and more people unemployed. That is the third part of his supposed "economic program".
For what it is worth, raising the minimum wage was proposed in the Democrat controlled Senate. Harry Reid, the leader of the Democrats, would not permit the Senate to vote on that measure. In other words, it was Reid, a Democrat, who blocked the bill. It was not voted down by Republicans at all.
The terrible thing is that there are literally dozens of actions that could be taken to grow the economy. Many do not involve spending even a dime of federal money. Some could cause a major increase in growth, while others would have smaller effects. All would be positive, however.
If we had a president who understood what it means to be president, we would now have a comprehensive program offered to Congress to grow the economy. Indeed, that program would have been presented years ago. Not all of it would have passed, but much of it would. Instead of watching the economy shrink by almost 3% last quarter, we could have seen growth. Millions more people would have jobs. Incomes across the country would be higher. But that would require a president who (1) wants to grow the economy and (2) has some sense how to go about doing that. America does not have such a president. We have Obama. Lucky us!
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