Obama’s speech was remarkable last night. Aside from Mike Huckabee, there is no other politician who is such an expert at saying absolutely nothing, with so much charm, eloquence and conviction. Obama plays the role as the morally righteous reformer and problem solver, while proving in his speaking and actions that he is a classic embodiment of reckless and irresponsible government intervention for the sake of posturing.
…we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our government, than ever before. In other words, we have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election.
Correct. Both individuals and government have been spending like mad. You can tell our spending culture is out of control when reductions in state budget increases are called “cuts.” But does Obama plan to stop spending, stop going into debt or stop supporting short-term interventions?
I asked this Congress to send me a recovery plan by President’s Day that would put people back to work and put money in their pockets. Not because I believe in bigger government — I don’t. Not because I’m not mindful of the massive debt we’ve inherited — I am. I called for action because the failure to do so would have cost more jobs and caused more hardships. In fact, a failure to act would have worsened our long-term deficit by assuring weak economic growth for years. That’s why I pushed for quick action.
Of course! The best way to stop a culture of short-term debt-spending and reckless tossing of shovelfuls of money into near-sighted government projects is by… wait for it… engaging in short-term debt-spending and reckless tossing of shovelfuls of money into near-sighted government projects. Obama says we need to stop shovelling out money to important electoral groups, and then, without batting an eye, starts talking about how it is somehow good for the long-term economy that teachers, health-care workers and police (huge electoral groups) have job security. He cites 57 police in Minneapolis keeping their jobs today as though this is an indicator (or, even worse, a creator) of long-term growth for the whole country.
Obama continues talking out of both sides of his mouth. Remember how earlier, he cited piles of public and private debt as a cause of the crisis? Less then ten minutes later:
The concern is that if we do not re-start lending in this country, our recovery will be choked off before it even begins. You see, the flow of credit is the lifeblood of our economy.
So we are going to fix the problem caused by too much debt with… wait for it… more debt!
Obama then declares that this is important to “…finance the purchase of… a home to a car to a college education.” But of course, Obama just said that part of the crisis was that: “People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway.”
Of course, Obama is just the spokesperson for the generally useless politicians in Washington. The whole chamber started clapping when he declared:
First, we are creating a new lending fund that represents the largest effort ever to help provide auto loans, college loans, and small business loans to the consumers and entrepreneurs who keep this economy running.
The way out of the financial crisis is not for people to make better decisions, invest in wiser business or incentivise higher quality products through the market – it is to buy, buy, BUY!Buy more houses, more cars and invest in even more risky businesses.
There was a lot more to complain about in Obama’s agenda, but if he doesn’t even understand economics – then he is going to have trouble working out healthcare, the military or education.
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What is worse that there are only a handful of representatives in DC that don’t think the answer is to spend. Even most republicans don’t disagree with the spending, but on where the spending went. Government is nothing but a corporation selling services to the taxpayer. If they continue to do so at a loss, eventually they will go bankrupt, just like any other corporation.