Big P
Well-Known Member
Victor Davis Hanson
What if the President LikedBusinesspeople?
The U.S. stock market hasnose-dived. Congress just approved the highest debt ceiling in Americanhistory, allowing the government to carry over $16 trillion in national debt --prompting the credit-rating agency Standard & Poor's to downgrade America'smultitrillion-dollar debt for the first time in 70 years.
Unemployment is still over 9 percent. Private-sector businesses may have morethan $1 trillion in cash, but they will be scared into not hiring or buying aslong as they fear a new tax, a new regulation, a new entitlement obligation, anew plant shutdown -- or a new harangue.
The Gross Domestic Product is almost static. Every classical Keynesian remedy-- massive government borrowing and spending ("stimulus"), near-zerointerest rates, public works, expanded federal entitlements -- has been tried,failed, and is turning a modest recovery into another recession. Neither theexample of the socialist European Union nor that of big-spending blue-stateAmerica suggests that massive government spending and entitlements lead tocollective prosperity.
In response to this depressing news, President Obama still offers the samepredictably stale sermons: George W. Bush did it. The Tea Party fiscalreformers are to blame. Government will fund "millions of green jobs."His political opponents want to destroy Social Security and Medicare.
But imagine if President Obama simply stopped diverting blame and triedsomething different.
Vast new finds of natural gas, oil and tar sands have been discovered offshore,in the American West, the Dakotas, Pennsylvania, New York and Alaska. Thisnatural wealth represents hundreds of billions of dollars of savings inimported-energy costs and millions of new American jobs. Instead of lecturingabout tire pressure, car tune-ups or trading in clunkers, the president couldrally the country to go all out right now to develop its burgeoning fossil-fuelresources as a way to transition to future green energy.
Ever since he began campaigning for the presidency, Obama has hectored the privatesector -- talking nonstop of higher taxes, "spreading the wealth,""fat-cat" bankers, paying your "fair share,""millionaires and billionaires," "corporate jet owners" and"unneeded" income.
Such share-the-wealth tirades were matched with redistributive vendettas. Vastnew financial regulations and red tape followed. A new trillion-dollarhealth-care entitlement was imposed on employers. The National Labor RelationsBoard is attempting to shut down a new Boeing aircraft plant. The federalgovernment took over private businesses -- and on occasion reversed the orderof payment to private creditors. New environmental regulations have curbedenergy and agricultural production. Lifelong academics and governmentfunctionaries, not businesspeople, staff the Obama Cabinet and head itsagencies.
But imagine that the president had instead promoted profit-making -- by cuttingred tape, praising entrepreneurs, promising no new taxes or burdens onbusinesses, and offering incentives to open new plants inside the U.S. In otherwords, what if small businesses and large corporations believed Obama to be afriend and partner, a leader who wanted them to make big profits, hire millionsof workers and enrich the country in the process?
In the last three years, the president has increased the national debt byalmost $5 trillion. But what if the president were to promise an end to thegargantuan spending and borrowing by accepting the tax reforms and budgetdiscipline offered by his own Simpson-Bowles Commission so far neglected by theadministration?
The United States should be in a renaissance. In a food- and fuel-short world,we have vast agricultural and energy resources. While there are riots, strikesand unrest from Europe to the Middle East, America remains quiet. Foreigndepositors even now still believe that the United States is the least likelynation to either confiscate their capital or renege on the interest owed on it.China, Russia and India have enormous environmental, demographic and socialchallenges ahead of the same sort the United States dealt with decades ago. Ourmilitary is far superior to the competitors.
After nearly three years of blaming, apologizing, and explaining what Americacannot and should not do, it is past time for a confident President Obama toremind the country that we can do almost anything we wish.
Instead of lecturing some Americans about why they owe their old wealth toothers, why not inspire them to create even bigger new profits to enricheveryone? And in these tough times, let the first family give up vacationing atVail, Costa del Sol and Martha's Vineyard; trim White House entertainmentexpenses; and set an example of thrift for the country to match new budgetfrugalities.
In short, President Obama could end the current psychological depression andacrimony by promising to lead from the fore rather than continually harpingfrom far behind.
What if the President LikedBusinesspeople?
The U.S. stock market hasnose-dived. Congress just approved the highest debt ceiling in Americanhistory, allowing the government to carry over $16 trillion in national debt --prompting the credit-rating agency Standard & Poor's to downgrade America'smultitrillion-dollar debt for the first time in 70 years.
Unemployment is still over 9 percent. Private-sector businesses may have morethan $1 trillion in cash, but they will be scared into not hiring or buying aslong as they fear a new tax, a new regulation, a new entitlement obligation, anew plant shutdown -- or a new harangue.
The Gross Domestic Product is almost static. Every classical Keynesian remedy-- massive government borrowing and spending ("stimulus"), near-zerointerest rates, public works, expanded federal entitlements -- has been tried,failed, and is turning a modest recovery into another recession. Neither theexample of the socialist European Union nor that of big-spending blue-stateAmerica suggests that massive government spending and entitlements lead tocollective prosperity.
In response to this depressing news, President Obama still offers the samepredictably stale sermons: George W. Bush did it. The Tea Party fiscalreformers are to blame. Government will fund "millions of green jobs."His political opponents want to destroy Social Security and Medicare.
But imagine if President Obama simply stopped diverting blame and triedsomething different.
Vast new finds of natural gas, oil and tar sands have been discovered offshore,in the American West, the Dakotas, Pennsylvania, New York and Alaska. Thisnatural wealth represents hundreds of billions of dollars of savings inimported-energy costs and millions of new American jobs. Instead of lecturingabout tire pressure, car tune-ups or trading in clunkers, the president couldrally the country to go all out right now to develop its burgeoning fossil-fuelresources as a way to transition to future green energy.
Ever since he began campaigning for the presidency, Obama has hectored the privatesector -- talking nonstop of higher taxes, "spreading the wealth,""fat-cat" bankers, paying your "fair share,""millionaires and billionaires," "corporate jet owners" and"unneeded" income.
Such share-the-wealth tirades were matched with redistributive vendettas. Vastnew financial regulations and red tape followed. A new trillion-dollarhealth-care entitlement was imposed on employers. The National Labor RelationsBoard is attempting to shut down a new Boeing aircraft plant. The federalgovernment took over private businesses -- and on occasion reversed the orderof payment to private creditors. New environmental regulations have curbedenergy and agricultural production. Lifelong academics and governmentfunctionaries, not businesspeople, staff the Obama Cabinet and head itsagencies.
But imagine that the president had instead promoted profit-making -- by cuttingred tape, praising entrepreneurs, promising no new taxes or burdens onbusinesses, and offering incentives to open new plants inside the U.S. In otherwords, what if small businesses and large corporations believed Obama to be afriend and partner, a leader who wanted them to make big profits, hire millionsof workers and enrich the country in the process?
In the last three years, the president has increased the national debt byalmost $5 trillion. But what if the president were to promise an end to thegargantuan spending and borrowing by accepting the tax reforms and budgetdiscipline offered by his own Simpson-Bowles Commission so far neglected by theadministration?
The United States should be in a renaissance. In a food- and fuel-short world,we have vast agricultural and energy resources. While there are riots, strikesand unrest from Europe to the Middle East, America remains quiet. Foreigndepositors even now still believe that the United States is the least likelynation to either confiscate their capital or renege on the interest owed on it.China, Russia and India have enormous environmental, demographic and socialchallenges ahead of the same sort the United States dealt with decades ago. Ourmilitary is far superior to the competitors.
After nearly three years of blaming, apologizing, and explaining what Americacannot and should not do, it is past time for a confident President Obama toremind the country that we can do almost anything we wish.
Instead of lecturing some Americans about why they owe their old wealth toothers, why not inspire them to create even bigger new profits to enricheveryone? And in these tough times, let the first family give up vacationing atVail, Costa del Sol and Martha's Vineyard; trim White House entertainmentexpenses; and set an example of thrift for the country to match new budgetfrugalities.
In short, President Obama could end the current psychological depression andacrimony by promising to lead from the fore rather than continually harpingfrom far behind.
