The Great American Divide
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- Published on Monday, 13 September 2010 17:22
- Written by JJ Karabias
“We came into office with a different view about how our economy should work. Instead of tax cuts for millionaires, we believe in cutting taxes for middle-class families and small-business owners. Instead of tax breaks that encourage corporations to create jobs overseas, we believe in tax breaks for companies that create jobs right here in the United States of America. We believe in investments that will make America more competitive in the global economy — investments in education and clean energy, in research and technology. These are the principles that have guided us over the last 19 months, and these are the principles that form the basis of the additional economic proposals that I offered this week.”
And so President Obama ended the week in much the way he began, highlighting the economic fault lines upon which the next 3 months are to be debated – the economy and jobs. Armed with a populist pugnacity brought on by a disconsolate month of August in which “recovery summer” was ultimately supplanted with “stagnation summer,” Obama made a convincing case for the policies implemented by his administration over his 18-month tenure.
Goaded by an emerging media narrative in which Democrats were all but assured of losing at least one house in Congress, Obama finally addressed the boorish deluge of GOP attacks by reminding the American public where we had been and how far we had come. Acknowledging that prosperity has not returned fast enough, the President importantly drew distinction between each party’s vision for future growth. Would we return to the tax cutting, laissez faire polices of Reagan supply siders? In the previous 8 years, such Gipper romanticism yielded the worst job creation (3 million net jobs) record since the end of World War II.
Instead, Obama made the case for a new American economy, urging we forge a new path forward, a path that marries the public and private sector in a transformative effort to lay the foundation for America’s future: investment in infrastructure, green and bio-technologies, and a rededication to manufacturing and home grown exports; a renewed commitment to growing the middle class when under the previous administration median household incomes declined, poverty increased and the number of Americans without health insurance increased to record levels. So indeed, Obama made the choice quite clear, we could move forward or we could hastily perform a mid-course u-turn in the direction of a decade Americans would rather forget.
All of this amid arguably the worst week of his presidency in which each subsequent poll seemed to portend increasingly worse prospects for Democrats in November. With an American public waiting for Obama to deliver the economic change outlined in the 2008 campaign, he had yet to make an assertive case for an expanded government role in the economy. Deficits and debt had suddenly become top issues for voters, and the GOP had successfully blamed increased government spending for the sluggish economic growth. Voters had turned sour on government and government spending and therefore the administration had been unwilling to tout its signature policies – stimulus and health care.
However, as we look back on the 2010 political season, history will show that last week was a turning point, the point in which the President finally found the courage of his convictions. And his convictions are the only chance America has for building a prosperous 21st century economy in America. Passing the economic stimulus and providing emergency capital to the nation’s top financial institutions were imperative to avoiding a depression and at long last the President finally realized the importance of defending his administration’s economic policies thus far. Looking forward, government involvement will continue to be a critical part of rebuilding the American economy as the country repositions itself in a changing world with new emerging powers. Making long term investments in American infrastructure, technology, and health care will position America to remain competitive in this changing world and the smart allocation of government dollars is fundamental to this process.
Conversely, the GOP offers little more than supply side dogma. Reducing the tax burden for high wage earners and corporations, with the hope that economic prosperity works its way down to the middle class. Unfortunately, we know how this experiment ends. Stagnant wages, reduced household incomes, runaway health care premiums, and an unchecked Wall Street. Irresponsible and inept, the GOP economic platform of 2010 simply does not possess the attributes suited for a 21st century world.
So as Obama and the Democrats look to close the enthusiasm gap with Republicans and quell GOP pickups in both the House and Senate, Obama should continue to remind voters just how far we’ve come. Eight straight months of private sector job growth, 2-3 million jobs saved or created by way of the economic stimulus, and a health care bill that will reduce the budget deficit by upward of $1 trillion dollars over the next 10 years. In addition, Obama and the Democrats have made long-term investments in things like clean energy technologies and high speed rail to name a few, precisely the types of things that will keep America economically strong over the course of the next 10 decades. Obama must remember polls ebb and flow while the long term prosperity of our country remains unflappable. His economic instincts are right, he should forcefully campaign on them in the face of GOP opposition.
