By Star Parker
Monday, July 29, 2013
Barack Obama went to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois,
this past week to re-articulate his vision for the American economy and to
reassure the American people that, yes, he knows what he is doing.
The President’s prodigious political skills are always on
display, even in the most challenging circumstances.
He can take dismal reality and spin a positive and optimistic
picture that will inspire his supporters.
And no matter how much the facts may contradict the
President's claims, his vision never changes, and he never seems to doubt that
he is right.
The President reminded the audience that he first spoke
there eight years ago as a new senator.
He noted the changes that have taken place. He’s now
president. He now has gray hair.
But what has not changed is the inside of the man. His
views have not budged an inch from those of the young senator of eight years
earlier.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the current
economic recovery “is one of the weakest on record, averaging 2 percent. Growth
in the fourth quarter of 2012 was .4 percent. It rose to a still anemic 1.8
percent in the first quarter, but most economists are predicting even slower
growth in the second quarter.”
Yet the president has no doubt that his policies are
right. He ticks off the litany of big government programs that allegedly saved
us from economic depression. And, with a slight nod that economic reality is
not as rosy as he paints it, he concedes, “We’re not there yet.”
Perhaps it’s again worth recalling the $831 billion
stimulus package in 2009 that supposedly would keep unemployment below 8
percent. As unemployment galloped past 10 percent, never was there a hint of
doubt from the President that his policies were right.
We’re just “not there yet.”
Now the President tells us we have to keep big, activist
government going in order to save America’s languishing middle class.
But the facts are that the middle class has fared poorly
under big government.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, median household
income today -- $51,761 -- remains way below where it was before the recession
started -- $56,289 -- and where it was when the recession began -- $54, 218.
But perhaps most notable in the President’s remarks is
what he did not say.
A magnificent economic miracle has occurred during this
presidency. But the president did not find it worth mentioning because it has
nothing to do with government.
Breakthroughs in technology have produced a boom in American
energy production. American oil production is up 37 percent over the last two
years, reversing 20 years of decline.
As of last March, the United States has become the
largest oil producer in the world. Oil imports have dropped to 36 percent of
our total oil consumption, down from 60 percent in 2006 and the lowest level
since 1987.
No government planner could have ever dreamed of this
type of miracle. It was not many years ago we were hearing about the world
running out of oil.
According to Mr. Obama we are really dealing with
different visions of how the world works. And he’s right.
One is driven by government planning. The other is driven
by freedom and private ownership.
Our president seems to be hardwired to the big government
view. And his portrayal of capitalism is harsh.
But as the new American oil boom attests, it is freedom
and capitalism that releases the human spirit, taps human creativity, and
produces prosperity that could never come from any government planner.
Few things are harsher than a stalled economy. People
wanting to work and can’t.
Even Barack Obama’s charisma is failing to mask the fact
that, if America is to recover, we need to restore the spirit of capitalism.
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