Friday, the left-wing Politico published a doozy of a piece that blamed our slowing economy on a lack of government largesse. According to Politico, what is hurting our economy is “the constant threat of devastating fiscal crisis, the blunt nature of the sequester spending cuts, the troubled roll-out of Obamacare and the now deeply strained relations with key economic allies over clandestine surveillance allegations.”*
Guess Politico forgot to add “Not legalizing 11 million Democrats with a bloated ObamaCare-ish immigration reform bill.”
Other than that, all the left-wing sweet spots are there, especially in what Politico conspicuously chose not to blame…
Note what Politico does not list as a killer of the American economy: a $17 trillion debt, rolling annual deficits that were unthinkable five years ago, a president who churns constant uncertainty with his calls for more regulation and tax increases, hyper-regulation like Dodd-Frank, a recent and massive tax increase, and regulatory overreach from agencies like the EPA.
Politico’s craftiest piece of left-wing sleight-of-hand, though, is this: “the troubled roll-out of Obamacare[.]”
You see, it is not the actual financial reality of ObamaCare that is killing our economy, it is only that the roll-out of ObamaCare is not going well.
So, according to Politico, if the ObamaCare launch had gone smoothly, this massive government takeover of 18% of the economy either wouldn’t affect our economy or might actually be good for it!
Apparently, in the Politico/DC echo chamber, blindsiding millions of middle class families with monthly premium spikes, imposing massive regulations and penalties on private sector businesses, and fining who-knows-how-many small businesses (America’s job engine) for not providing health insurance, is all a non-factor in America’s economic stagnation, or… will actually help the economy once we get that darned website working.
Politico’s only mention of ObamaCare’s effect on job creation is written off as “anecdotal,” which is now a typical talking point among the left-wing media to wrist-flick real people losing real jobs. Until these stone-cold Statists see The Data, it is not really happening — even though, you know, it is.
Oh, wait, my apologies to Politico; I was wrong about immigration reform, and should have known better:
Officials from the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers were at the White House Thursday to push for immigration reform. But many Hill watchers believe the chances of immigration or tax reform making it through Congress this year are near zero. And they are even less is likely to happen during the 2014 midterm election year.
That leaves executives despairing about the prospects for faster growth.
The anti-science, anti-history Politico isn’t at all interested in looking back on the pro-free market policies Ronald Reagan put into place to roar us out of a recession every bit as bad as the one Obama inherited. Instead, Politico wants us to believe the economy would improve if the government just spent more money and flooded an already despairing job market with 11 million illegals. And that the only negative effect ObamaCare is having on our economy is not the brutal economic reality of ObamaCare, but the fact that its brutal reality is a wee-bit glitchy.
Moreover, punitive taxes, regulation, deficits, and the unrelenting threat of more has absolutely nothing to do with a stillborn job and economic growth.
But if you really want to boil Politico’s message down to its essence, it is this: Don’t you dare blame big government liberalism for any of this.
*How can surveillance allegations no one knew about until this week be to blame for an economy that has been sinking for six months?
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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