THE PRESIDENTS MISSPLACED PRIORITIES

 

In 2009 when the president took office and the economic crisis was dominating the headlines, President Obama used the crisis to promote spending almost a trillion dollars of “stimulus”. The money got spent, however in the cold light of history it is now evident that behind all the rhetoric the dollars were used not for stimulating the economy but rather to pay off campaign supporters. We as a nation then had to witness or President traveling around the world bowing to dictators on the miss-guided apology tour. The administration lectured us about a new reset in foreign relations based on being nice to despots so that they will like us. Pendulum type antics from the department of state where we supported Egypt’s president before we didn’t, and then we supported the Arab spring before we didn’t, led to confusion about foreign policy and covert arms smuggling.

The priority at home became passage of the President’s signature takeover of the healthcare industry. The entire industry comprising 1/6 of the U. S. economy had to be wrecked in order to rectify the huge injustice of some people, a small minority, not being able to buy health insurance. It turns out that all the law accomplished was driving up costs for everyone and costing more people coverage than it provided to others. The law has gotten so unpopular that it will probably cost the Democratic Party control of the Senate later this year. The administration pivoted to an all out push for amnesty for illegal aliens while the country suffered from record unemployment levels and the moved right into pushing for cap and trade legislation. The Congress refused to go along with the carbon tax lunacy so the President circumvented the legislature and used the EPA regulatory authority to crush the coal industry. Global warming or climate change took center stage with huge federal expenditures on wind and solar alternative power ventures and electric cars.

Back on foreign policy our “be nice to our enemies” plan backfired when our ambassador and three other Americans got killed in Libya. Iran kept on enriching uranium and Syria killed large numbers of its own citizens with chemical weapons while we lectured Israel about how it should treat the Palestinians.

The Presidents reelection brought with it a new set of priorities. The focus shifted from job creation, which had not worked anyway, to eliminating income inequality. The first step promoted by the administration is raising the minimum wage to $15/ hour. Mr. President less than five percent of the workforce works for minimum wage and the higher wage rate is going to be a barrier to entry for people seeking employment. We have about 90 million people in this country who want jobs and can’t find them so why is it that you think it is important to take to the airwaves to publically make your March madness bracket selections and then go play another round of golf. The press continues to tell us that the President is a brilliant man so why is it that we never seem to see out brilliant chief executive set good priorities or even recognize that his old priorities were wrong. We as country forgive miss-steps but eventually we expect to see some prudent course corrections before driving into the ditch.