Washington Specter

There is a specter in Washington. It has traveled through Congress and the White House. It settled over Washington’s statues and memorials like a heavy mantle. What is this specter? It is the absence of leadership. It permeates everything in Washington.

Yesterday, the unemployment rate rose to 9.2%. This is after President Obama promised that his stimulus package would keep unemployment below 8%. Rasmussen Reports flatly stated that “Americans are less confident than ever that the nation’s policymakers know what they are doing when it comes to the economy.” The absence of leadership, the specter, is visible. It is tactile. It is real.

What other indicators of the specter are there? The absence of presidential leadership in the debt limit discussions is a huge indicator. Obama ignored the national debt in favor of trillion dollar plus deficits. He swept the debt issue over to a commission then ignored the commission’s recommendations.

The House passed a budget. The Democrat controlled Senate has not produced a budget bill two years running. Obama delivered a budget that was so detached from reality and lacking in leadership that the Democrat controlled Senate rejected it by a 97-0 vote. Ouch!

Then Obama delivered, in his debt-plan speech, not a budget plan but a new budget framework. At a committee hearing, Representative Paul Ryan asked the CBO Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf if he had evaluated the impact of Obama’s proposed framework on the federal budget. Elmendorf replied, “We don’t estimate speeches.” Ouch!

The mantle of no leadership weighs heavy on the American people. When will this recession end? Just as there is no leadership in Washington, there is no light at the end of this dark tunnel. Meanwhile, everything Obama touches gets worse.

Rasmussen Reports Consumer Index has fallen to its lowest level since July 2009. Just 6% of consumers rate the economy as good while 59% say it’s getting worse. Getting worse!

All the while, President Obama refuses to govern and is unable to lead. He is in full campaign mode but he can’t run on his failed record. Unemployment is at 9.2%, up from 7.3%, or an increase of 26% since Obama took office. The national debt is at $14.5 trillion, up from $9.9 trillion, or a 46% increase. Ouch!

The Bureau of Labor Statistics documented job losses at 3,600,000 in 2008, 5,063,000 in 2009, and increases of 940,000 in 2010 and 783,000 in 2011 (as of May). This reflects job losses of 9,663,000 vs job gains of 1,723,000, which resulted in a net job loss of 7,940,000 for the period. This 8 million job loss figure does not include those people who have given up looking for work. Some experts have estimated that figure to be around 6 million. That’s 14 million people out of work and Obama’s stimulus package helped only 12% of the total, maybe?

The specter now permeates the private sector. Why are companies not hiring? It is the specter of uncertainty produced by bad health care, tax and business legislation. It is the specter of uncertainty caused by the administration’s continuing attack on those who make more than $250,000 annually. Obama calls them millionaires. They are really middle class and small business, not millionaires. But they produce jobs. Not now, though. They’re waiting out the uncertainty.

This means that the economy will not turn around and grow until Obama leaves the presidency. He’s made everything worse. No leadership. No governance. No integrity. The economy sputters because of the uncertainty caused by his positions on taxes, health care, business . . . and the list goes on.

More and more regulation as a proxy for socialism means less competition as companies struggle with burdensome red tape. As a result, companies are neither hiring nor investing. They’re waiting . . .

We also will wait . . . counting the days to the election that will be Obama’s “last stand.” We will be counting the days until we will rid the country of imperfect dictatorial socialist rule and megalomania, and return America to its role of leadership and example, all without apology to diminutive tyrants.

Ronald Reagan was prescient when he said, “We’ve come to a moment in our history when party labels are unimportant. Philosophy is all-important. Little men with loud voices cry doom, saying little is good in America. They create fear and uncertainty among us. Millions of Americans, especially our own sons and daughters, are seeking a cause they can believe in. There is a hunger in this country today. People yearn once again to be proud of their country and proud of themselves, and to have confidence in themselves. And there’s every reason why they should be so proud. Some may have failed America, but America has never failed us, and there is much to be proud of in this land.”

The specter of Barack Obama will be removed

May God bless America.