Obama is a great speaker and his speech before Congress showed our young president at his best. He is funny, articulate, and, to many, inspiring. Sadly, his program is a major expansion of government at the expense of the private sector. His model is the European model. Government knows best what to produce and even how to produce it. The phrase "bad decisions" appeared several times in his speech and the phrase always referred to decisions made in the private sectors. The public sector doesn't make bad decisions according to the president. The private sector and previous Republican Adminstrations are solely responsible for our present woes in Obama's view. As the deficit spending spirals out of control, Obama calls for more spending. As Americans choke on an ever higher tax burden, Obama calls for higher taxes. As industries are strangled by government bureaucracy, he calls for more regulation of business. As financial services are devastated by loose talk about destroying existing contracts that underlie their assets, he calls for them to make more loans to people that cannot afford them. As foreign countries threaten to retaliate against protectionist moves by this president, he lashes out at companies "that send our jobs overseas."
There were some good points. For the first time in his five week presidency, the president suggested that the American economy might recover. Gone was the "catastrophe" talk. He smiled. He seemed of good cheer. He means well.
But, the substance of this talk was chilling for anyone hoping that this young president would begin to see the damage that he is doing to the American economy. He just doesn't understand much economics and he certainly isn't listening to Larry Summers or Paul Volcker.
