The Economy Will Be THE ISSUE

The new jobs report is out and the numbers remain both unchanged and discouraging.  But more importantly, a recent article suggests the President and Democrats understand two important things:  (1) the economy will be the only issue people care about when they go into the voting booths this fall and (2) they neither have, nor can they convince the public otherwise, any answers to turn it around.

No incumbent president has ever been reelected with unemployment numbers hovering where they currently stand.  The President’s recent forays into social issues were largely an attempt to change the subject to something other than the economy.  While they will even prove problematic for him in the long run, it is beyond doubt that voters have a narrow focus right now – jobs – and the President knows it.

Billions of dollars have now been spent on stimulus pacakages and bail-outs; and our national debt is in the trillions of dollars.  Yet even the most optimistic of economic analysts can only say it hasn’t worsened as a result.  The President’s grand economic experiment has failed, as did it on previous occasions in American history, because it overlooks one fundamental truth:  government can never create jobs.  What it spends is taken from someone else in tax dollars, and those tax dollars eventually run out unless you are willing to raise taxes or run a huge deficit.  And higher taxes and increased debt do nothing but slow growth further and make things worse. 

Since taking office, the President has discovered something that was pretty apparent when he ran for this office to those willing to see it.  Actually doing the job is a lot tougher than running for it.  A president has to lead and make tough decisions.  You don’t get to vote “present” when you are the leader of the free world, as he did so many times as an Illinois State Senator.  People also don’t want to hear you blame your predecessor when you have been in office for over 3 years.  You own the problem now and results are expected.

If Mitt Romney is smart, he will use every opportunity to talk about the economy and the President’s record on it.  The next sentence out of his mouth each time should be his declared intention to get the government out of the way and let the American people do what they do best – get back to work.