Economy

Note: Part I of this series appeared in the  June issue of A Line of Sight here. Part III will publish in the August issue.

On Wednesday, June 30, Barack Obama told a crowd in Racine, Wisconsin – a city reeling with 14 percent unemployment – that “the economy is headed in the right direction.”  Even if the folks listening to the President wanted to believe him, the economic news over the next 72 hours told a very different story. 

During times of economic uncertainty, proponents of big government cite the New Deal as the model by which government should control the economy. Many misconceptions endure about the causes of the Great Depression as well as the fiscal, monetary and public policies that many people believe ended it. History teachers teach high school and college students that greedy investors and big business caused the stock market crash of 1929 and that President Roosevelt’s New Deal ended the greatest economic depression of the twentieth century.

See the letter below from economists who respond to a White House letter.

Dear President Obama and Congress:

As early as this week, the House of Representatives will vote on the Senate-passed health care bill as well as a reconciliation package making changes to the bill. While Speaker Pelosi asserts that health care reform will create four million jobs, we disagree. In our view, the health care bill contains a number of provisions that will eliminate jobs, reduce hours and wages, and limit future job creation.

Pravda editorial, April 8, 2010

Stanislav Mishin

According to a study conducted by the Associated Press, health care insurance premiums under ObamaCare for younger adults “would likely climb by 17 percent on the average” as a result of the mandated cost shift within the legislation disproportionately to the younger population.  The AP says this could mean as much a $500 more per year for Americans in their twenties and thirties, and would have significant economic consequences.

At President Obama’s infamous Summit on February 25, Nancy Pelosi boldly stated that ObamaCare would create “400,000 jobs almost immediately”, 4 million over the life of the bill.  If so, it’s off to a rocky start.