Democrats Boxed in By Failed Economic Policies

December 2, 2011

After Three Years of Failure, Democrats Still Can’t Admit that Their Failed Policies Have Destroyed Jobs and Made a Bad Economy Worse

In recent months Democrats have finally conceded that their oft-promised economic recovery is lagging—but without ever taking responsibility for their failed policies.
Democrats face a conundrum: they can’t honestly diagnose the causes for the lagging recovery without admitting that their own job-destroying policies are to blame. In fact, they would prefer Americans forget that they are continuing to sabotage job-creation efforts even today.
Democrats refuse to learn from the failure of their policies and are still pushing the same policies that made a bad economy worse.

BACKGROUND

In recent months Democrats have finally conceded that their oft-promised economic recovery is lagging—but without ever taking responsibility for their failed policies:

OBAMA ADMITS “WE’RE NOT FULLY OUT OF THE RECESSION YET.” (“Remarks by the President on the American Jobs Act,” The White House, 11/30/2011)

PELOSI: WITHOUT STIMULUS, WE WOULD BE AT 15 PERCENT UNEMPLOYMENT:“But I will tell you this, if President Obama and the House Congressional Democrats had not acted, we would be at 15 percent unemployment. Again, no consolation to those without a job, but an important point to make.” (“Transcript of Pelosi Press Conference Today,” Office of the Democratic Leader, 11/3/2011)

OBAMA CONCEDED: “I DON’T THINK [AMERICANS ARE] BETTER OFF THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO”: “‘I don’t think [Americans are] better off than they were four years ago,’ Obama told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in an interview Monday. ‘What we’ve seen is that we’ve been able to make steady progress. … But the unemployment rate is still way too high.'” (Michael A. Memoli, “Obama Says Americans Aren’t Better Off Under His Watch,” Los Angeles Times, 10/3/2011)

AFTER HE SAID AMERICA “HAD GOTTEN A LITTLE SOFT” BEFORE HE TOOK OFFICE, SO THE LAGGING RECOVERY ISN’T HIS FAULT: (David Jackson, “Obama: U.S. ‘Had Gotten a Little Soft,'” USA Today, 9/30/2011)

MORE ATTEMPTS TO DEFLECT: OBAMA HAS SAID IF HE LOSES RE-ELECT “IT WILL BE BECAUSE THE ECONOMY WAS IMPERVIOUS TO HIS ATTEMPTS TO REVIVE IT”:“Obama has mused in several private settings that if he loses re-election, it won’t be because a Republican beat him: It will be because the economy was impervious to his attempts to revive it.” (Marc Ambinder, “One Small Step for Jobs, One Big Target for Republicans,” National Journal, 9/7/2011)

OBAMA BLAMED ONGOING WEAKNESS IN ECONOMY TO “BAD LUCK”: “Over the last six months, we’ve had a string of bad luck — there have been some things that we could not control.” (“Remarks by the President in a Town Hall Meeting in Cannon Falls, Minnesota,” The White House, 8/15/2011)

Democrats face a conundrum: they can’t honestly diagnose the causes for the lagging recovery without admitting that their own job-destroying policies are to blame. In fact, they would prefer Americans forget that they are continuing to sabotage job-creation efforts even today:

EPA’S REGULATORY RAMPAGE:

TEXAS PUBLIC POLICY CENTER: “NEVER IN ITS 40-YEAR HISTORY HAS EPA PROMULGATED … SO MANY COSTLY NEW REGULATORY DICTATES”; “COULD COST MORE THAN $1 TRILLION,” DESTROY HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF JOBS:“As Kathleen White of the Texas Public Policy Center told the House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this year, ‘never in its 40-year history has EPA promulgated — at the same time — so many costly new regulatory dictates. The rules on track to go into effect in the next three years could cost more than $1 trillion and result in hundreds of thousands of jobs lost.'” (Editorial, “Obama’s EPA is Killing the Economy with Costly Rules,” The Washington Examiner, 11/26/2011)

SABOTAGING NEW ENERGY PROJECTS:

EPA “PURPOSEFULLY SLOW-WALKING” PERMITTING FOR NEW ENERGY PROJECTS: “Jackson and her EPA minions have been purposefully slow-walking the agency’s already hideously complex process for approving permits in a crucial sector of the energy industry. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., asked the EPA inspector general to review the agency’s permitting process for surface mining permit applications in the Appalachian region over the last two years.” (Editorial, “Obama’s EPA is Killing the Economy with Costly Rules,” The Washington Examiner, 11/26/2011)

OBAMA ADMIN DELAYS 200,000 JOBS FROM OHIO SHALE DRILLING PROJECT “IN DEFEFERENCE TO ENVIRONMENTALISTS”: “President Obama’s United States Department of Agriculture has delayed shale gas drilling in Ohio for up to six months by cancelling a mineral lease auction for Wayne National Forest (WNF). The move was taken in deference to environmentalists, on the pretext of studying the effects of hydraulic fracturing.” (Joel Gehrke, “Obama USDA Delays Shale Drilling, Up to 200k Jobs,” The Washington Examiner, 11/18/2011)

NEW UTILITY RULES:

UTILITY MACT RULE IS PROJECTED TO COST 1.44 MILLION JOB-YEARS: “Some plants may shut their doors while others will sharply decrease production or abandon plans to expand their facility. The NERA study predicts that the United States will lose 1.44 million job-years (where one job is for one year) by 2020 should both regulations be finalized and implemented.” (Paul A. Yost, National Association of Manufacturers, 8/4/2011)

KEYSTONE XL DELAYS:

“OBAMA PUNTS KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE” UNTIL AFTER 2012 ELECTION: (Dan Berman and Darren Goode, “Obama Punts Keystone XL Pipeline,” Politico, 11/10/2011)

KEYSTONE PROJECT WAS PROJECTED TO CREATE MORE THAN 20,000 “SHOVEL-READY” JOBS: (Editorial, “Keystone Cop-Out,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/11/2011)

LONG-TERM JOBS IMPACT: UP TO 130,000 JOBS: “Many of those 20,000 jobs on the construction of the pipeline would have been filled by skilled union members. Eventually, the completed pipeline was expected to result in as many as 130,000 jobs, many of them on the upper Texas Coast, where the heavy oil would be refined into 700,000 barrels of oil daily.” (Editorial, “Keystone Pipeline is the Wrong Call,” The Houston Chronicle, 11/11/2011)

Democrats refuse to learn from the failure of their policies and are still pushing the same policies that made a bad economy worse:

“CBO: STIMULUS HURTS ECONOMY IN THE LONG RUN“: “CBO said that while the Recovery Act boosted the economy in the short run, the extra debt that the stimulus piled up ‘crowds out’ private investment and ‘will reduce output slightly in the long run — by between 0 and 0.2 percent after 2016.'” (Stephen Dinan, “CBO: Stimulus Hurts Economy in the Long Run,” The Washington Times, 11/22/2011)

99 DEMOCRATS NOW RALLYING AROUND OBAMA’S CALLS FOR MORE STIMULUS: (Thomas.gov, Accessed 12/1/2011)

WHITE HOUSE SAYS “WE CAN’T WAIT” FOR MORE STIMULUS, EVEN THOUGH THE FIRST ONE FAILED: “President Obama’s growing impatience with Congress’ refusal to ‘pass this bill now’ has launched a new approach — bypassing Congress by taking actions that don’t require congressional support and insisting that ‘We Can’t Wait’ for any more delays on Capitol Hill.” (“President Begins ‘We Can’t Wait’ Economic Push,” Fox News, 10/24/2011)

BUT STATE UNEMPLOYMENT REMAINED “GENERALLY LITTLE CHANGED” IN OCTOBER: (“Regional and State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release,”Bureau of Labor Statistics, 11/22/2011)