PrintJuly 10, 2010
Blather in Kansas City
The home of the football Chiefs welcomed the Commander-in-Chief on Thursday, as Barack Obama visited the Midwest to raise some campaign money for U.S. Senate candidate, Robin Carnahan, and to tout his economic plan.
What we heard and saw was more lies and foolishness from the President.
After 18 months as Chief Executive of this nation, the President continued to lay the blame for our economic woes on former President George W. Bush. Obama said, "This recession was the culmination of a decade of irresponsibility-a decade that fell like a sledgehammer on middle class families."
Imagine if after spending 18 months on the job, an executive of a company continued to blame his predecessor as production continued to slide. Would the stakeholders and or the Board of Directors be satisfied with such an attitude? Hardly. They would demand to see what has been done to alleviate the situation and the results of those actions.
What Obama can show us is an unemployment rate that has risen on his watch to just under 10 percent. He can speak of government spending and deficits that are without parallel in our nation's history and a massive leadership debacle during our nation's largest environmental disaster. Add to those a plummeting level of confidence in him and his leadership, as evidenced by the latest Gallup poll in which only 46 percent of Americans approved of his job as President. All of this has occurred under his administration not that of George W. Bush. How's that for job performance?
Just as when the President lied about not having available oil reserves last month in his televised address to the nation regarding the BP oil spill, he told another outright lie in Kansas City. It was so blatant that it was almost humorous. Note the President's words, "So our goal has never been to create another government program, our goal has been to spur growth in the private sector."
Really? Does any sane person who even casually follows politics or watched the 2008 presidential campaign believe this? Four words -- "government health care reform" or to be more accurate "universal health care". When the President signed this into law he created one of the largest government programs this country has ever known. It is essentially the mother of all government programs.
He ran on this very platform during his campaign. What he said in Kansas City about not wanting to create another government program is completely false. Creating universal health care, essentially ran by the government, was a primary goal of his presidency. How amazing it is that the man can say "our goal has never been to create another government program" with a straight face.
Further lunacy was heard when President Obama proclaimed in his Kansas City speech, "And we are guided by a simple idea: Government doesn't have all the answers."
Does this President expect me to believe this? The words of our President speak of one thing, while his actions are the complete opposite. This is a President who has championed a massive increase in government expansion and regulation across multiple industries. His actions tell us that, in fact, he does believe government has all the answers.
Perhaps the icing on the cake was not any of the words that the President uttered, but the location in which this speech was given. It was at the company headquarters for Smith Electric Vehicles, which received $32 million in government stimulus and produces electric moving trucks. The President proudly hailed that the company just hired its fiftieth worker -- but at quite a cost.
Obviously the company had some workers before the stimulus, but just to be kind, suppose they didn't. A little basic math tells us that each worker was produced with just over $600,000. Why would you brag about creating one worker for every $600,000? Again, this is being kind, as some of these individuals were already working for the company. If the stimulus actually only produced an additional twenty workers, then those workers were each added for about $1.5 million of taxpayers' money.
Also, it is worth noting that the $32 million went to a foreign company, as Smith Electric Vehicles is not just some Mom & Pop manufacturer. The company is owned by Britain's Tanfield Group PLC.
So, what we learned from the President of the United States on Thursday is that you and I helped write a check for $32 million to a foreign company to create jobs in the United States that each cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce. And we were reminded that this President doesn't believe government has all the answers because the last thing this President wants to see is another government program.
How can anyone not have confidence in this man's ability to lead the greatest nation on earth?
Chad Stafko is a writer and political consultant living in the Midwest. He can be reached at stafko@msn.com
