If You Like Obama's Failed Policies, Vote for Him
By David Limbaugh
TownHall.com
Those who understand that America is now on the wrong track cannot reasonably vote for Obama in November, because he is absolutely unwilling to change, perhaps even ideologically incapable of changing, course. Evidence abounds.
First, consider his disastrous economic record
and his rejection of any semblance of a course
change. He and his economic advisers told us his
stimulus would keep unemployment below 8 percent. It
didn't. He didn't consider for a second that his
policies exacerbated the economic crisis. He blamed
Bush and said that if anything, he -- Obama --
hadn't spent enough. He demanded more stimulus
packages -- high-speed rail, other infrastructure,
American Jobs Act. He continued to grow government
in a wide variety of areas; things continued to get
worse. No sign of any significant economic recovery;
we had the worst recovery in 50 years. No sign of
unemployment relief. He didn't change course.
Despite his failed performance, he told us in 2009
that only the government could break this business
cycle. He told us in Osawatomie, Kan., that the
private sector couldn't lead us back to economic
vitality on its own. Recently, he told us that
successful entrepreneurs didn't build their
businesses -- or roads or bridges or whatever
claptrap he pretended to have meant. He refuses to
reconsider his flawed notions. Arrogance, as much as
ignorance.
If you think that despite all this, Obama may have
learned his lesson and will change course going
forward, you are fooling yourself. Obama won't
change his economic policies, because he is addicted
to spending and to growing government on several
levels. His economic philosophy, his ideology and
his political survival demand that he stay the
course.
He firmly believes that only government spending --
Keynesian pump priming -- can stimulate a moribund
economy. He believes it to the point that he's
willing to bankrupt the nation to do it. His
philosophy countenances no other alternative methods
of recovery, specifically letting the private sector
breathe and recover on its own. That's the economic
philosophy component.
He also knows that the most efficient way to
redistribute wealth and otherwise reallocate
resources from groups he believes less deserving to
those he believes more deserving is through an
increasingly progressive tax code and more
government spending. That is, even if he shared the
ordinary American's debt aversion and reasonable
anxiety about our horrifying financial predicament,
he wouldn't discontinue (hasn't discontinued) his
pursuit of ever-greater taxing and spending, because
to do so would be tantamount to abandoning his
quest, his obsession to fundamentally transform
America. That's the ideological component.
Finally, he fully realizes that even if he didn't
firmly believe in expanding the welfare state --
incentivizing states to expand their food stamp
rolls, extending unemployment benefits, sabotaging
welfare reform, increasing the percentage of people
not paying income taxes and otherwise presiding over
the unprecedented swelling of the welfare state and
those dependent on government aid of one form or
another -- he would still be compelled to continue
expanding it because he believes a great majority of
his constituents depend on this expansion. He
couldn't win re-election without doing so. That's
the political component.
The same general themes hold true for Obama's
extremist environmental agenda. His policies are
enormously destructive to our coal, oil, nuclear
energy and natural gas industries, but he shows no
signs of letting up, even though these policies are
also manifestly destroying American jobs and
otherwise harming the economy. Why would he? He
telegraphed his actions, and he's merely fulfilling
his promise.
While sabotaging our reliable energy sources, he is
also throwing as much federal money as he can at
failed green energy projects, which are so
ill-conceived that a reasonable person might
conclude his goal is to waste money. Solyndra wasn't
the only such failed enterprise, as we've shown.
There were a dozen others, and despite these
failures and the unconscionable waste, he has
revealed nothing but a defiant determination to
double down and spend more on other such projects.
It's mind-blowing.
Likewise, he pursued Obamacare with maniacal
intensity, even when the public clearly and
emphatically registered its dissent. His response
was more haranguing speeches to browbeat the
recalcitrant, ignorant masses into seeing his
superior wisdom. Even after the stated purposes for
his grand design have been shown to be fundamentally
flawed -- it's going to bend the cost curve up, not
down, and dramatically so, and it's going to leave
30 million people uninsured -- he is more determined
than ever to implement it against the people's will.
I am just getting warmed up here; I haven't even
discussed his politics of division or his wars on
business, our defenses and the Constitution. The
bottom line is this: If you like Obama's record,
vote for him, because you're only going to get more
of it -- way more if he wins and thinks he has a
mandate.