On Friday, our President went to Toledo, Ohio and gave a speech to auto workers there which can only be described as bizarre. So bizarre in fact, I am wondering if along with all of the other medical professionals which are probably a part of any Presidential entourage, should we mandate a psychiatrist as well. We’ll start with this, our President chose as the audience for his campaign speech on economics the factory workers who build Jeep Wranglers. After spending the last two years talking about the evils of SUV’s, and berating previous audience members for not driving in more gas efficient hybrid vehicles, President Obama was confident that UAW affiliation would be enough to guarantee a warm reception from the evil producers of a non-hybrid, gas guzzling, 4 wheel drive, monster vehicle. He was openly booed at several points during his speech. Only one of these boos made the national news, and that was not widely reported. Then we got to listen to Obama finally address the dismal recovery of our economy from the latest recession. He described the recovery as on track but facing, “headwinds.” If by headwinds, he means the idiotic economic policies of his administration and his own personal assault on the free enterprise system, well then I suppose he has a point. As part of the, “headwinds,” out of his control, he whined about gas prices. It is true that a President does not directly set or exert control over gas prices, but there are some things a President can do to help, or hurt the oil markets. Barack Obama has done everything humanly possible for a President to outright stop domestic oil production. In one instance of his assault on the oil industry here in America, President Obama managed to record a Presidential first for the history books. President Obama was held in contempt by a federal judge for his refusal to approve any Gulf Oil Permits. Not even Richard Nixon managed to be slapped with a contempt order, and he was forced to resign his office in part for what he eventually turned over the the court. Since the contempt order, President Obama’s Administration has moved with a remarkable lack of haste. I am not certain, but I do believe the number of Gulf permits granted since the contempt order now about a year in age, stands at 2. The EPA, his favorite regulatory weapon is now engaged in stopping existing production in west Texas, why, because a 3 inch lizard happens to reside there. Then there is the technology which allows us to extract oil from shale, which I have read in many places that there is a lot of. Well, don’t look for that oil to be extracted under Obama’s watch, he has directed his minions to stop it. I keep hearing the meme that we can’t drill our way out of high gas prices. Besides the fact that this statement is plainly stupid on its face, all we really need to disprove it, is an adult memory. Each and every time a former administration has eased regulation to even begin expanding domestic production, the prices at the pump have fallen immediately. One obvious reason is that other people change their behavior. Other nations which produce oil expand their production to lower the price, hoping that we will no longer find drilling for our own necessary.
Another of the, headwinds,” is the plethora of onerous regulation being inflicted upon the economy by executive fiat. Barack Obama is the master of saying one thing and doing another. During the State of The Union Address, Obama bemoaned the over reach of wasteful regulation which was stifling our economy. Since that time, regulation by executive fiat has been a top priority of his domestic agenda. Rising food prices are blamed for American anger with the economy. The term headwinds would lead one to believe that our President is powerless to affect them in any way. I have a helpful suggestion or two for the hapless Kabuki President. Stop subsidizing food to be converted into fuel. The ethanol program has not done a thing for gas prices, it is actually bad for our cars, and it is causing famine in third world countries, and that is beyond driving up our own prices here at home. Stop paying farmers to not farm on 17% of their land. The great terror of overproduction was always a myth. It is a lie, that we all must pay for on grocery shelves around this nation. During the hype alleging this myth, farm land prices skyrocketed. This occurred during a time period when all other real estate values fell by 31%. Tell the EPA that they are forbidden from inflicting their damage upon farms, or for that matter anyone ever again. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the EPA qualifies as a good intention. It seems as though Washington bureaucrats have a problem with milk. They have declared milk to be a dangerous substance, and have inflicted added expense in the form of spilled milk emergency plans, reporting, and monitoring. Farming in fertile Central California has been stopped to protect the Delta Smelt.
Another glaring, “headwind,” would be the crowning achievement of Obama’s domestic agenda. The health care monstrosity which I’ll refer to as Obamacare carries with it 11 new taxes to be implemented over the next 3 years. These taxes are on top of the costs of $10,000 to $20,000 per U.S. employee to be borne by the private sector. What mood do you believe prospective employers will be in when it comes to expanding their businesses or performing any type of hiring activity. That answer has already been given in the form of increased unemployment rates. The ravages of Obamacare are in fact so disastrous, the laws most ardent supporters have been granted waivers to exempt themselves from the consequences of the law having been passed. This leaves an increased burden to be borne by the rest of us poor schlubs who are not politically connected to the ruling elite. So much for Democrats being, “for the little guy,” or, “for the people.”
Then there were the farcical claims made by Obama during his speech. Our economy has created the greatest number of jobs since the great depression was one such claim. Here is a chart published by the Minnesota Federal Reserve Board to refute this nonsense.
He also made the claim that GM and Chrysler repaid their loans 6 years prior to the schedules agreed to under the terns of the TARP loans. Unfortunately, in order to back this claim, an accounting trick which would have sent any of the rest of us to jail needed to be employed. It worked something like this, a special tax credit was invented, which was only available for two American companies, ie. GM and Chrysler, which shockingly transferred an amount of money necessary for loan repayment from the public largess to those companies which were then transferred back to us as loan repayments. In other words, taxpayers got screwed, and Obama gets to use this lie as the central theme for his campaign to be reelected.
Barack Obama is in full out campaign mode now for his reelection bid. You probably did not notice a difference in his performance of his duties, as he has spent his term in office so far either inflicting damage upon our economy or perpetually campaigning. We can not afford 4 more years of this. How’s that hopety change working for you so far?
Crossposted at Musings of a Mad Conservative.
Tags: Opinion
