Pete Souza
A funny thing is happening to President Obama in his pursuit of redistributive economic policies: Facts are getting in the way.
The facts in this case are being pronounced by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan federal agency that crunches numbers for the government, which concluded that raising the federal minimum wage would actually reduce employment.
CBO’s findings are nothing new, of course. As we know, calls to raise the minimum wage are simply fodder for the President’s liberal base. And as Heritage’s James Sherk has pointed out on numerous occasions, raising the federal minimum wage would actually hurt low-income workers by forcing businesses to cut jobs—making it more difficult for unskilled workers to gain the experience necessary to get ahead.
But what makes these latest findings interesting is that the White House has been quick to discredit the very agency it has touted in the past to enact and promote its progressive policies.
The White House backlash directed at the Congressional Budget Office reveals something deeper and much more troubling. This spat reeks of desperation. Presiding over one of the worst economies in modern American history and years of blaming everyone except himself, the President now sends his spokesmen to remind the American people that the findings by the government agency are “subject to misinterpretation.”
In other words, our feeble minds shouldn’t try to wrap around the complexity of the CBO’s findings, even though they are corroborated by expert economic analysis.
Unfortunately for the President, the American people are voicing their continued disapproval of the economy and the lack of job creation.
The President is following his established agenda: Continue pushing class warfare and discredit anyone and everyone who disagrees with you.
