To the editor:
It's doubtful the message makers in the White House found any humor in the Daily Show's Jon Stewart comparing President Obama to a "tax credit Oprah." While the Comedy Central funnyman is right to diagnose Oprah-style giveaways as a symptom of why Obamanomics is failing, we should look to Major Phil Cannella and George Donner to find the disease.
Major Cannella was never an A list celebrity, but his words live on as an example of how good people can bring disaster by slavishly following misguided policies. When your mission can be summed up as "It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it," failure can be the only result. As in Vietnam, President Obama's effort to "fundamentally transform America" will end badly.
In January the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal released their Index of Economic Freedom. In it the United States fell to 10th place; indeed, we have slipped every year of President Obama's rule, as we were ranked sixth in 2009. They attributed our loss of freedom to "rapid expansion of government, more than any market factor, appears to be responsible for flagging economic dynamism." An easy way to gauge the effect of Obamanomics is to compare the first 10 quarters of the Reagan recovery with our current economy. Under Reagan, the economy grew 16 percent; under Obama, just six. If we were to follow Reagan's policies today, the country could be $1.2 trillion wealthier and 10 million currently unemployed Americans would have jobs. Instead, President Obama continues implementing policies that promote fairness over growth while our country declines.
If not for his fateful decision to take the Hasting's shortcut, the name of Mr. Donner would be lost to history. While it took getting snowbound for the settlers to resort to cannibalism, letting the well-healed feast on taxpayers is a feature of Obamanomics. In a report, the Washington Post found "Obama's green-technology program was infused with politics at every level" and their Robert Samuelson called the rejection of the Keystone pipeline "an act of national insanity." Maybe Mr. Samuelson was unaware that Obama's billionaire crony Warren Buffett, who just happens to own the Burlington Northern railroad, stands to reap a financial windfall with the pipeline's demise. The author Peter Schweizer found that 15 companies that are either run or owned by financial backers of President Obama received $16.4 billion in government-guaranteed loans. So far, the cost to taxpayers: Solyndra, $527 million; Ener1, $118 million; Fisker Automotive, $193 million; and CBS News found there are 11 more Solyndra's that could cost taxpayers $6.5 billion.
As the socialist Amon Rubinstein admitted, "On the whole, those systems that have put liberty ahead of equality have done better by equality than those that have put equality above liberty." Come November, we can keep a president devoted to seeing our economic freedom slip-slide away, taking growth and jobs with it. Or we can send him back to Chicago with Oprah, Rahm and Alinsky's ghost.
Paul Breau
Newburyport
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