‘Damn the economy — I need to be reelected!” That, basically, was President Obama’s message to the nation in yesterday’s Rose Garden speech ostensibly addressing DC’s runaway deficits.
Obama knew full well that the GOP-run House won’t back tax hikes while the nation flirts with double-dip recession. (Somebody has to be the adult.) Yet he insisted on them anyway (some $1.5 trillion, in fact), claiming they merely ask “the most fortunate among us” — that is, the most productive — “to pay their fair share.”
In other words, Obama told Americans bluntly he’s itching for another standoff.
Then, you see, he can blame Republicans, painting them as defenders of “unfair” advantages for the “wealthy” who don’t care about the middle class.
It’s rubbish, of course. And while it may work as a political strategy, it will do nothing for the nation’s jobs drought.
Instead, it injects more uncertainty into business decisions, threatening the economy further. (Didn’t he learn anything from this summer’s debt-ceiling gridlock?)
Here’s what the president won’t admit: Government doesn’t create real jobs; people who risk their own capital do.
Squeeze their profits and investment incentives with higher taxes, and you’re bound to snuff out opportunities for private-sector job-creation.
Still not convinced Obama is more focused on his re-election campaign than deficit-reduction or the economy?
Then explain this: In August, the president acknowledged the “urgency” of the nation’s chronic high unemployment.
Then he went on vacation.
This month, he demanded (seven times in one speech, in fact) that Congress pass his bill “right now” — even though the legislation hadn’t even been written. Now it seems his fellow Democrats won’t even take up the bill at least for another month (following a congressional “recess”).
How serious could Obama be about debt-reduction and job growth?
By the way, New Yorkers would be clobbered if his tax hikes pass, since the state boasts more “wealthy” taxpayers per capita than elsewhere. The president would also roll back tax deductions that benefit New Yorkers disproportionately.
Will the state’s Democratic congressional delegation fight Obama’s plan? Right.
Bottom line: President Obama has little interest in growing jobs.
How he thinks that will get him re-elected is beyond us.