President Obama made history a few nights ago by being the first African American President to watch House on Hulu in the oval office. Oh, he also gave a speech...
Is anyone surprised that:
A) I watched it?
B) I have some thoughts I'd like to share?
I've broken my thoughts into two posts so that it's not one big long post. My secondary thoughts are on the post below. Here is my main complaint with what President Obama had to say:
During his speech, the President set up a strawman. His thesis was that the choice the government had was between the stimulus package and inaction. This is false and incomplete.
He started this section of his speech by saying, "I don't believe in bigger government. However, a failure to act would ensure weak economic growth for years." True. However, our choices were not only $7 trillion in spending or inaction. We had other options.
History has shown us that the type of action that has been taken is not the best course of action. Instead of "weak economic growth" which is the Presidents prediction of inaction, he's saddled us with a period of rapid artificial economic growth followed by an extended recession because the economy will have further to rebound as it was relying on the government's money. Money that is no longer there. What do we do then? Go deeper in debt? Double the stimulus because we've fallen twice as far?
The Republican response was right on target. The solution to the problem is not bigger government, but smaller. Don't take more money with plans to spend like crazy. Offer tax incentives: A tax break for hiring people, a tax break to small businesses, lower income tax rates. Let the people use the money. If history has taught us anything, it's taught that people with money are more productive than government with money! Instead of increasing peoples' dependency on government we need to increase the United States' ability to prosper.
Please continue reading for my other thoughts on the speech.
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