Tuesday, June 05, 2012

The End of Hope and Time for a Change

With Friday’s dismal job report, the American people are probably wondering just how bad things are and how bad they are going to get. Unemployment is on the rise again, and the stock market slumped in its worst day of 2012. Are these signs of impending economic doom or merely a bump in the road to recovery?

Some subtle signs suggest that the White House itself believes we are headed for serious trouble. The New York Times notes:
The anemic jobs report released on Friday was one thing. But here’s another worrisome economic indicator: Even the White House written response this month dropped the words “recover” or “heal” in describing the economy.
Every month, the Times points out, the White House has issued basically the same statement, extolling the positives of the jobs report, anemic though they might be, and lauding the gradual healing of our economy and its overall recovery. That changed on Friday with statement by Alan Kreuger, chairman of the President’s council of economic advisers.
So what was Mr. Krueger’s first sentence on Friday in response to the May jobs report? No more healing, no more recovering. Instead, he opened his statement this way: “Problems in the job market were long in the making and will not be solved overnight.”
It’s a striking change, and the best evidence yet that the President’s one trillion dollar stimulus bill was a dismal failure, and wasteful one at that. In the face of such disappointment, the question before the American people in this election could not be more clear. Do we continue with the policies of the last three and a half years, or do we take a new path?

President Obama has made clear that his solution is more of the same—more government, more stimulus spending, and more taxes. The President’s stubborn adherence to policies that have so clearly failed is his greatest weakness. Governor Romney offers the change we need. It’s one that focuses on the power of the free market and job creators, the twin engines of growth that made our country an economic powerhouse.

We need not settle for chronic unemployment over 8 percent and anemic economic growth. The White House may have lost hope, but the American people need not fear. Change we can believe in arrives November 6.