Obama’s Potemkin Economy

The Soviets used to show Western visitors fake villages to make it look as though life was wonderful in the communist economy. Unfortunately, too many people fell for the Potemkin villages. President Obama hasn’t created a village, but he has created a description of his economy that’s entirely made up. Daniel Henninger compares it to the video game Sim City, where players create their own little fake towns and villages where everything is as they would like it to be.

Welcome to the land of make-believe!

The Obama Bioeconomy will come to life after the Ag Department “increases the purchase of biobased products” under a program that originated in the 2002 farm bill. After mandating a 50% increase in products designated as biobased, “items like paints, soaps and detergents . . . are developed from farm grown plants, rather than chemicals or petroleum bases.” This, the president says, “will drive innovation and economic growth and create jobs at marginal cost to the American public.”

You can’t make this up. On the other hand, that’s the point: You can make this up, and then sell it, or try to sell it, as An Economy Built to Last.

The announcement Tuesday of the impending Bioeconomy was of course overwhelmed that day by the president’s White House speech celebrating Congress’s one-year extension of his payroll tax cut. This was the biggest economic policy event in Washington the past two months. The president himself announced the payoff for the American people: “It means $40 extra in their paycheck.” Sounds real, but barely.

Moments later, he drew attention to an initiative “we passed” that will “create jobs by expanding wireless broadband and ensuring that first responders have access to the latest lifesaving technologies.” When Newt makes claims like this, he’s nuts; with Barack Obama, it’s a vision.

Read the whole thing.

Too bad the economy isn’t a game, and President Obama is turning us into something along the lines of another failed socialist republic.

As I write this, Obama is on television talking about his energy policy and high gas prices. It’s just more of the same, and more talk of his make-believe economy.

Tags: economy, fake, make believe, obama