When President Obama was inaugurated one year ago, the US economy was struggling. In his address he noted: “The state of our economy calls for action, bold and swift. And we will act, not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth…All this we can do. All this we will do.”
So how did he do? Badly.
First, he boldly and swiftly went on a spending spree, bailing out US auto companies and passing a $787 “stimulus” bill that promised to create 3.5 million jobs. Instead, America has shed 3.4 million jobs, driving the unemployment rate from 7.2 to 10 percent since last January.
Next, he spent $100 billion expanding SCHIP and authored a budget that increased discretionary spending by 8 percent—a quiet yet swift reversal of his campaign pledge to enact a net spending cut.
Meanwhile, he’s totally ignored the largest and fastest growing programs, the budget-busting entitlements that are in desperate need of reform. Initially he pledged bipartisan cooperation and fiscal responsibility, but then quickly abandoned it to try to force Congress to pass a new, expensive health care entitlement that lacks bipartisan support.
Remarkably, he went on to invent a new school of economic thought—one that will probably not get him a second Nobel Prize—which is the first to claim that it’s a good idea to raise taxes in a recession. He’s supported raising taxes to pay for health care and his cap and trade energy policy. With rhetoric that continues to be more powerful than his ability to actually legislate, this alone has been enough to frighten small businesses and slow recovery.
And, when all was said and done, he ran a record $1.4 trillion deficit. Over the next ten years, his budget comes up $13 trillion short, adding more debt in one decade than has accumulated in the US from 1789 through 2008 combined.
As the economy continues to hemorrhage jobs, growth prospects remain weak, and spending and debt pile up, it might now be time for some real change we can believe in.