In a New York Times interview last week, President Obama acknowledged that there’s “no such thing as shovel-ready projects.”
This was one of his main selling points for the $862 billion stimulus package. He now admits they don’t exist, and the stimulus is clearly not working.
The public was told that unemployment would not go above 8 percent if the stimulus package passed. They passed it and unemployment went to over 9.6 percent and stayed there. So now the president and his economic advisors say we might have to just get used to high unemployment. And they want to spend even more money.
Another New York Times article titled “Obama on Defensive at Forum” was buried in the lower left corner of Page 17 of the October 15, 2010 edition. It reported that a recent black college graduate “complained that despite the government’s costly actions, our unemployment rate still rises, and businesses uncertain about taxes are not hiring college graduates like me.”
“Mr. Obama said that most of the unemployed had lost their jobs before he took office,” the Times reported. He’s right. But he failed to mention that the number of unemployed has increased by over 40 percent since he has been in office. Those that are unemployed don’t care when they lost their job. They want a job.
Four of the five top advisors who developed this flawed economic advice have now moved on to other endeavors, while nearly 15 million people are still unemployed. People expected things to get better, not worse.
The public was told that the health care deform bill would lower health care costs, increase access to health care and lower the national debt long term. Early implementation has resulted in increased costs, not quite everybody getting health insurance and a mass of confusion about the bill as we gradually discover what’s really in the bill. The majority of Americans want the legislation repealed.
The public was told repeatedly by the president that if you like the insurance you have then you can keep it. It turns out that you can keep your insurance only if the company you work for gets a special waiver from the administration. At last count, more than 30 major corporations have been granted special waivers.
We were promised transparency in government. Oh well! I guess it depends on your definition of transparency. But we now know that the administration’s definition is not the same as us regular folks.
Broken campaign promises disappoint us. Bad legislation and policies hurt us, the economy and the nation. Most presidents keep some of their promises and get some decisions right. Unfortunately, this president is having trouble getting even some decisions right. I stopped counting the broken promises.
A caller to my radio show last week said she was going to back President Obama no matter what. And when I pointed out these disturbing results, she said it did not matter to her.
That’s part of the problem. In spite of President Obama’s failed policies and lack of leadership, some people will still follow him right off the proverbial cliff.
But it gets worse! He actually thinks he’s doing a good job. Here’s what he said in an interview with the NewYork Times:
I think they (people) could say, on a bunch of fronts he (the president) still has an incomplete. But I keep a checklist of what we committed to doing, and we’ve probably accomplished 70 percent of the things that we talked about during the campaign. And I hope as long as I’m president, I’ve got a chance to work on the other 30 percent.
Accomplishing 70 percent of the wrong things is not an incomplete grade. It’s failure.
America, we have a problem. This problem cannot be solved for another two years. But it can begin in November of 2010.
Herman Cain is a former CEO, a radio talk show host on AM 750 and 95.5 FM WSB in Atlanta, and a FOX News contributor.
