The Big Lie

“The failed economic policies of the last eight years.” We’ve head that line quite a bit lately. Does anyone remember the recession George W. Bush inherited? It was after the ‘dot com bubble’ burst. George W. Bush’s economic policies weren’t so bad then, were they? Then we had 9/11 and another downturn in 2003. Today those times are just barely blips on the radar of economic downturns.

I believe that if the current economic crisis happened a year ago the economy would be back on the upswing. The markets would know what to expect, at least for the next year, and things would stabilize quickly. Sure, we’d still have the underlying problem of the housing market and the mortgate mess, but I believe it would be a lot less severe if there was a sense of stability right now.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case. George W. Bush is on his way out and Barack H. Obama is on his way in. The word of the day is uncertainty. Markets don’t like uncertainty and like it or not, investment fuels our economy.

All this talk about Barack Obama being the next FDR is really making me nervous. Contrary to popular belief, FDR didn’t get us out of the depression, he prolonged it by as many as seven years. So when people tell me Mr. Obama will be the next FDR, it makes me believe we won’t be out of this economic crisis until my seven year old starts high school.

Besides the depression, we’re still paying for President F. D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, and we can’t afford that. How are we going to afford a new New Deal? I guess I should ask how our children and grand children are going to be able to afford it. Don’t we owe them a chance at growing up without a ton of debt hanging around their necks?

Nothing I’ve heard lately leads me to believe that Barack Obama is not trying to emulate FDR. He’s promising 2.5 million new government jobs. He’s not telling us how he will pay for it. He’s promising health insurance for everybody. He’s not telling us how he will pay for it. Heck, he even promised to bankrupt the coal industry, but he didn’t tell us how he’ll pay to replace that industry, or how we’ll pay for higher utility bills.

President Bush has expressed a willingness to meet with Barack Obama now to ensure a smooth transition and calm the markets. To date Barack Obama hasn’t taken him up on his offer. Why not? He’s set up his “change.gov” website. He’s doing weekly addresses from the ‘Office of the President-Elect’. But when given the chance to put his money where his mouth is we hear “There’s only one President at a time.” Again, why not do what’s best for the country? Why not do whatever he can to stabilize the markets?

Noel Sheppard at News Busters found a clue this morning on “Meet the Press.” Republican James Baker suggested that Barack Obama should meet with President Bush. Democrat Bill Daley, while indicating they’re ‘interacting’ fell back on the old “There’s only one president at a time” line.

Mr. Sheppard raises a lot of interesting points. When banks were failing left and right, Herbert Hoover asked to work with Franklin Roosevelt and his economic team before the inauguration, believing that things couldn’t wait for the transition. Roosevelt refused. Did he refuse because he wanted things to get worse so he’d have a mandate to pass his policy proposals? It kind of makes sense, doesn’t it? Otherwise, why not meet with the sitting president and do what’s best for the country?

Another clue comes from Rahm Emanuel, the man Mr. Obama has chosen to be his chief of staff. He recently said “Rule One: Never allow a crisis to go to waste. They are opportunities to do big things.” Most people see a crisis as something to get out of right away. Mr. Emanuel sees a crisis as an opportunity to do things that might otherwise not be tolerated. Hmm. Interesting.

I believe there’s another reason Mr. Obama doesn’t want to see things improve in the economy before his inauguration. It’s what I call the Big Lie. The Democrats blame George W. Bush for what’s happening in the economy right now. They refuse to admit any blame for the meltdown in the mortgage industry, which precipitated the current mess we’re in. Blaming Bush provides cover.  Should things stabilize now, the American people will have nobody to blame but Obama and the Democrats when things get really bad.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 12:01 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.