So here we are, one day later, digesting the State of the Union and my opinion hasn't changed. The President has essentially told the American people that he's going to stay the course and try harder to ram through his policies. It's disheartening to listen to the President give a speech that is drowning in denial. The White House has caved in to the far left view that the Massachusetts Senate race was in some way an endorsement of their policies. The spending will continue and the attacks on the private sector will only intensify as the President tries to convince voters that he is a populist. Mr. President, please hire some adults who know a thing or two about the economy. You've surrounded yourself with academics and politicians who don't have a clue about how the real world operates. God help us!
From the Wall Street Journal:
So much for all of that Washington talk about a midcourse change of political direction. If President Obama took any lesson from his party's recent drubbing in Massachusetts, and its decline in the polls, it seems to be that he should keep doing what he's been doing, only with a little more humility, and a touch more bipartisanship.
Mr. Obama's economic pitch also differed little from last year, when the jobless rate was 7.2%. He offered a spirited defense of the stimulus, though the jobless rate is now 10%, and he promised more of the same this year, especially on "green jobs." He also offered some minor if welcome tax cuts for small business, and $30 billion in handouts for "community banks" to be able to lend more.
Yet at the same time, he couldn't resist more banker baiting, and he promised that he's determined to see tax rates rise for millions of Americans next year when the Bush rates are set to expire. He also pushed more exports while saying he'll raise taxes on some of our biggest exporters, otherwise known as multinationals that "ship our jobs overseas." Mr. Obama believes he can conjure jobs and a durable expansion from the private sector while waging political war on its animal spirits. It can't be done.
This reflects a larger problem, which is his belief that economic growth springs mainly from the genius of government. Thus Mr. Obama presented a vision of an economy soaring to new heights on "high-speed railroad" and "clean energy facilities" and 1,000 people making solar panels in California. He seems not to appreciate that what really drives growth are the millions of risks taken each day by millions of individuals, far from the politicking and earmarks of Congress or the Department of Energy.
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