If a $787 billion stimulus didn’t work in 2009, why would a $447 billion stimulus work in 2011? Mr. Obama’s dwindling numbers of supporters are giddy that he delivered yet another rousing speech last week, but everyone else is wondering how this stimulus will bring unemployment down and how it will be “paid for.” We’ve been down this stimulus road before and all we have to show for it is more Obama speeches and fewer jobs. Our country is desperate for bold leadership and big ideas that will change the failing status quo.
Randy Bish / Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (click to view more Obama Jobs cartoons)
It didn’t happen last night because the President’s number one concern is getting re-elected. Mr. Obama supplied further evidence for this charge by sending out a campaign email to supporters just prior to the speech that stated, “If you’re with me, let me know. And the campaign will make sure you are looped into our efforts to support this plan.”
How exactly does the billions in new taxpayer-funded government spending President Obama proposed last week mesh with the Super Committee’s mission to find $1.2 trillion in budget cuts over the next 10 years? Citizens United is closely monitoring the Super Committee proceedings and is poised to send 15,000 signed petitions to Democrat members Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Chris Van Hollen urging them to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. Americans are struggling and one of the ways to help our economy is to guarantee our citizens and businesses that their taxes aren’t going up. It’s common sense that economic uncertainty discourages investment and growth.
Unfortunately, President Obama once again called for tax increases to pay for his latest spending binge. Mr. Obama himself has said in the past that raising taxes in the midst of the awful Obama Recession would be counter-productive. What has changed? If anything, the economic climate is deteriorating. Not to mention, neither the Debt Super Committee nor the U.S. House of Representative will agree to tax increases of any kind. So why did the President bother to put it in the speech? Perhaps Mr. Obama’s big labor bosses Richard Trumka and Jim Hoffa should be queried on this point. It was telling to see Mr. Trumka in the audience making sure the President didn’t say anything against his wishes. President Obama, our most liberal president ever, could not muster the political courage to offer any innovative or new ideas that might insult his special interest groups.
The President’s latest “jobs” plan once again calls for extending unemployment benefits and sending more handouts to big labor for infrastructure projects and failing public teachers’ unions. President Obama, the liberal’s liberal, just can’t wrap his head around the notion that extending unemployment benefits ad infinitum fosters a culture of government dependency that makes people less likely to ever look for a job. Furthermore, allowing the federal government to decide where taxpayer money is sent to “stimulate” certain sectors of the economy creates situations like in the case of the recently bankrupt solar power company Solyndra.
Solyndra was given a $535 million taxpayer-funded loan via Mr. Obama’s last “stimulus” plan. The California based company was supposed to be a shining success story for President Obama’s clean energy jobs program, but instead it left over 1,000 people without jobs and taxpayers on the hook for a half billion dollar failure. What’s worse is that one of the President’s big campaign contributors, George Kaiser, was Solyndra’s biggest shareholder. Records indicate that Mr. Kaiser and other Solyndra officials frequented the executive mansion to meet with senior Obama officials such as Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett. Congress and the FBI are investigating who knew what and when, but it’s abundantly clear that the blame for this debacle leads straight to the White House. This shameful episode highlights the obvious: President Obama and his administration equal business as usual in Washington and trillions worth of government “stimulus” plans don’t create jobs. Thanks to President Obama, nine percent unemployment is here to stay.
