Prior to being elected President, Barack Obama came across as a real outsider hoping to bring change to a failing system personified in one man: then-President of the United States George W. Bush. Indeed, much of the criticism leveled against Bush was valid. He and the Congress had started long and costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq at a time when America could ill afford to be spending such amounts, given the precarious state of its public finances. Bush had made compromises with treasured civil liberties by passing the invasive Patriot Act and indefinitely detaining suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Some of these suspects at Guantanamo Bay had been tortured by the American authorities. George W. Bush had been a combination of the worst traits of Republicans and Democrats; he had combined the aggressive militarism and nationalism of Republicans, hated by many people worldwide, with the free spending ways of the liberal Democrats, leading to the worst public finances this nation had ever seen (that is, before Barack Obama’s presidency). He gave Obama a mess that unfortunately has been further complicated by Obama instead of cleaned up. Indeed, while many admired George W. Bush’s personal decency, as far as policy was concerned, many began to see Bush’s policies for what they were: disasters.
Many of these things should be no mystery to anyone after Obama rightfully criticized Bush over and over again in the 2008 campaign. It has been noted by some writers that Obama’s policies have been very oddly a continuation of much of what Bush’s policies were while he was in office. Of course, there have been differences as one would hope to see between a “conservative” Republican and a far-left Democrat, but the similarities have been uncanny. Obama has continued Bush’s interventionist ways and has compiled a record of spending that matches his largess.
That is why it was no surprise to see Barack Obama get up and roundly praise the man whom he had routinely condemned to get elected. To see him chum around with the former Presidents both left and right showed what a sham his criticisms of Bush had been. Bush was transformed from the almost devilish figure he had been to Obama in his early days to a man of “compassion and generosity,” a real example (in Obama’s eyes) of what a leader should be. It is clear that Barack Obama has joined the “world’s most exclusive club” and has forgotten the very reasons why he wanted to be elected in the first place. It was also no surprise to see George W. Bush praised by Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in addition to Obama. Maybe this “conservative” President, this “Reaganite,” is a little more to the left than we had assumed. Maybe our current President is a little more of an insider and a statist than he appeared to be in order to get elected to the world’s most powerful office. Food for thought, at least.
F. Peter Brown is an Associate Editor at the Western Center for Journalism and Editor at the Sound Money Institute. Follow him on Twitter @FPBLibertarian .
Photo Credit: Dustin C. Oliver Creative Commons
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Obama’s In Texas To Talk Jobs? He Should Try Listening
In February, I invited Barack Obama to come to Texas to learn to create jobs.
Four months later, and under intense pressure to make it look like he cares about the unemployed, he’s coming to Austin for “an event on the economy.”
Instead of talking, he should come and listen.
He inherited an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent. After four years and a Congress that gave him everything he demanded in a $1.2 trillion “stimulus” bill, the only thing that grew was human suffering.
Under Obama, the percentage of the adult population with a job or looking for one has dropped to record levels. The “civilian labor force participation rate” is at an abysmally low 63.3 percent, the lowest since 1979 and Jimmy Carter.
Additionally, 9.5 million working-age Americans have given up on finding a job under Obama. Combined, they would make the nation’s 11th largest state.
Job creation is nearly dead under Obama and nowhere near what we need to recover. Americans are giving up looking for work under Obama in numbers unseen since Carter. Black and Hispanic unemployment have grown to epidemic levels under this president.
The widespread suffering makes Obama’s decision to disband his Jobs Council earlier this year even more insulting. Obama wants us to accept unemployment and poverty as the new normal. Under Obama, our only reliable export is failure.
People are suffering because of Obama sinking deeper into his personal agenda of high taxes and attacks on job creators rather than creating a rising tide of prosperity.
Obama’s stubborn policy of raising taxes on job creators and issuing wasteful regulations means the private sector isn’t growing fast enough to restore our economy. We can’t afford four more years of Obama’s failed liberalism. He needs to turn off his teleprompter that’s already pre-programmed with the same old failed agenda of tax hikes and more giveaways to his political donors.
If Obama wants to learn how to create jobs, he should stop talking and instead listen to Texans.
Texas also inherited an economy from George W. Bush. Unlike Obama’s economy, ours is booming. Spending cuts, small government, and light regulations are the fuel that has the Texas economy roaring.
Texas did it by cutting taxes, while Obama grounded America’s economy to a halt by raising taxes.
Texas fueled jobs by expanding our oil and gas industry, while Obama has siphoned off jobs by slashing oil and gas production on federal lands and aggressively attacking private development with regulations.
Liberals love to blame slower growth in government spending for low job numbers, but Texas cut spending by $11 billion and job growth exploded. Government spending is a barrier to prosperity.
While Obama is burying the United States in massive deficits, Texas is sitting atop an $8 billion budget surplus. Not only is a Texas not running a deficit; unlike Obama’s government, we can pay off our debts.
Texas has a healthy, booming economy because we saw what Obama was doing and did the opposite. While Obama is giving up on job creation, Texas is busy trying to fill jobs.
If Obama really cares about the millions suffering under his economy, he’ll drop the canned speech filled with the same failed liberalism. Obama needs to adopt the Texas model of low taxes, smart regulations, and a booming oil and gas industry.
“Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may.”– General Sam Houston, First President of the Republic of Texas
Donny Ferguson
Senior Communications Adviser
U.S. Representative Steve Stockman (TX-36)
202-225-1555