No, Mr. Obama, we didn’t try that (at least not in the 2000s)
(But, when we did try it, it did work)
(But, when we did try it, it did work)
“A key attack line in President Obama’s campaign stump speech these days“, observes John Merline in Investor’s Business Daily,
is to claim that the country has tried Mitt Romney’s economic policies already, and they were a dismal failure.
Romney, he says, wants to do two things: Cut taxes for the rich and massively deregulate the economy.
“The truth is,” Obama says, “we tried (that) for almost a decade, and it didn’t work.”
Via Instapundit. Now, Mr. Obama’s predecessor cut taxes across the board, but he didn’t “massively deregulate the economy.” He didn’t even moderately deregulate it. As Merline reminds us, “the size and cost of the federal government’s regulatory machinery increased dramatically,” in the first years of this century, “as Bush imposed dozens of major new rules.” (Read the whole thing to learn some details and costs of the regulatory regime of the immediate past President of the United States.)
The last time an administration came close to “massively” deregulating the economy, we saw the beginnings of an economic boom that would last nearly a quarter-century. So, if Mr. Romney really does want to deregulate the economy, he’d be following in the footsteps of policies that we tried and which worked.
We’ve also tried Mr. Obama’s policies and, well, they’re not working. Nearly three-and-one-half years after he signed his “stimulus,” the economy remains in the doldrums, the slowest recovery since the Great Depression, unemployment above 8%, manufacturing stagnant, retail sales and incomes declining and food prices rising.
“You know,” a politician once said, “the idea you would keep on doing the same thing over and over again, even though it’s been proven not to work. That’s a sign of madness.” Given the economic numbers these last few years, you’d think that guy would be hoping for change in the upcoming presidential contest.
FROM THE COMMENTS: John has a theory why Obama continues to misrepresent his predecessor’s record:
Unfortunately, it’s been proven that Obama can say pretty much anything he wants and his fawning media won’t call him out on it in any significant way. Oh they might bury the story deep within some unknown blog that nobody reads, but that’s it.
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The Competitive Enterprise Institute reports that regulation costs the U.S. economy $1.75 trillion per year: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/cost-government-regulation-175-trillion
I haven’t read the report, but I would hazard a guess that its estimate is conservative; a guess that CEI tried to be careful and only measure direct costs of regulation, costs that can be “seen”. If so, then they would have left out the “unseen”: the businesses, jobs, innovations, production and other output that regulation deterred people from undertaking to begin with.
Further to that: How, pray tell, does Romney want to reduce taxes from the taxes we have under 3 years of Obama right now? “I wish!” Well, I suppose I can be shot down on that one pretty easily, if Romney has published some tax proposal that I missed, because it’s a minor part of his campaign.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — July 25, 2012 @ 4:54 am - July 25, 2012
So, the president who signed Sarbanes-Oxley and pushed for more regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who signed the legislation outlawing incandescent bulbs and mandating Chinese Mercury Death Bulbs, who signed legislation mandating new energy standards for home appliances, who prosecuted the executives on Enron for abuses that occurred under the previous administration even though they had contributed to his campaign … was a de-regulator of the economy?
This must be some new definition of the word “deregulation” I was not previously aware of.
Comment by V the K — July 25, 2012 @ 8:40 am - July 25, 2012
Unfortunately, it’s been proven that Obama can say pretty much anything he wants and his fawning media won’t call him out on it in any significant way. Oh they might bury the story deep within some unknown blog that nobody reads, but that’s it.
Comment by John — July 25, 2012 @ 10:24 am - July 25, 2012
Bush also expanded the government’s central planning of the economy (see TARP, not to mention his expanded entitlement programs, 1% interest rates and other practices which assisted the housing bubble).
Lefties are using their Big Lie technique. Remember, socialists perfected it (namely, National Socialists). They designed it to throw people off what the Left is up to. Bush was a Big Government “moderate”, something of a regulator… so, lie bald-faced that he was a laissez-faire deregulator. That discredits deregulation and justifies (under Obama) increases in regulation beyond anything Bush could have imagined.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — July 25, 2012 @ 10:57 am - July 25, 2012
This surprises anyone? It’s just a different way of Obama expressing his contempt for businesses and people, telling them “You didn’t build that” and trying to shame them into handing over more money to the government.
Every time Obama says regulations are required, ask him why he thinks businesses are criminal and people are stupid.
Every time he screams for higher taxes, ask him why he thinks people don’t deserve to keep what they earn.
Every time he blabbers about “investment”, ask him why his invariably involve taking money from those who work to give to those who won’t.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — July 25, 2012 @ 11:38 am - July 25, 2012
Thanks to NDT and Twitter, I have had the misfortune of meeting idiot liberals who really believe George W. Bush really was a full-on Ferengi-Space-Jew who unleashed the running dogs of unbridled capitalism.
Comment by V the K — July 25, 2012 @ 12:31 pm - July 25, 2012
You’ve met Levi then?
Comment by The_Livewire — July 25, 2012 @ 1:28 pm - July 25, 2012
Holy shit. There are gay conservatives…just a fucking nuts as the straight ones. Idiots. signed: a gay REAL patriot and a Vietnam Vet.
(you people are like roaches for Raid).
Comment by JonJon — July 25, 2012 @ 5:35 pm - July 25, 2012
JonJon, thanks so much for you civil remark! Can you please tell me how you reached your conclusions.
Thanks!
Looking forward to hearing your answer and to having you address the point made in the post to which you attached your comment!
Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — July 25, 2012 @ 9:33 pm - July 25, 2012
Oh, is that why you endorse the party that calls you a war criminal and wanted you to be imprisoned, tortured, and murdered?
Do you also agree with your Barack Obama and your Barack Obama Party that US soldiers are “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” in US cities?
And we should also remember that the Barack Obama Party has a history of putting forward fake gay veterans. Why do you support that? Are you one of them?
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — July 25, 2012 @ 10:00 pm - July 25, 2012
Y’know, liberals never boycotted Obama when he was against gay marriage.
Comment by V the K — July 25, 2012 @ 10:16 pm - July 25, 2012
JonJon >> Thank you for your service, but your incivil behavior doesn’t do us liberals any favors.
Comment by Cinesnatch — July 26, 2012 @ 1:28 am - July 26, 2012
It is interesting to me that support for free markets and fiscal restraint constitutes “f-cking nuts” to the liberal left.
Comment by V the K — July 26, 2012 @ 8:44 am - July 26, 2012
Not just you, V.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — July 26, 2012 @ 9:45 am - July 26, 2012
I find it condescending that Obama assumes that our view of him is molded by a negative campaign and alleged distortions of his own words by Romney’s camp. Frankly, I don’t need Romney to spell things out for me when Obama says something. Obama’s “You didn’t build that” moment. It wasn’t a quip, or a snippet, but a 43 second diatribe. Does he really think people like me are too stupid to understand what he says and we await Romney in all his infinite wisdom to spell it out for us?
Comment by SharpTurn — July 26, 2012 @ 11:12 am - July 26, 2012
LOL.
Notice the construction there. Cinesnatch doesn’t say that JonJon’s behavior is bad; he just whines about how it makes liberals look bad.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — July 26, 2012 @ 12:15 pm - July 26, 2012