Why the economy refuses to recover: Americans are on strike against Obama's anti-American, big government policies

Hoist by his own petard.

That's President Barack Obama.

Having assumed office with an illusory mandate to "transform America," he tossed aside public opinion, ignored voters' traditional preference for moderate, not radical, change, and set out to impose his vision of  dominant government and a citizenry willing to say, okay, when a designated bureaucrat tells them their time has come to die. In doing so, Obama's minions bribed lawmakers to vote for measures opposed by a majority of voters and made a mockery of the legislative process.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be an unduring symbol with her call for Congress to pass a bill cobbled by insiders so that rank and file members could find out what's in it.

As the nation's debt grew by trillions of dollars, voters recoiled in horror while Obama remained unfazed, and perhaps unwitting. There is, after all, little evidence that Obama has any understanding of economics aside from the obvious fact that many of America's corporate elite will throw money at radical politicians so long as those politicians protect and nurture their corporate interests.

As a leftist nurtured in marxist truisms, he is, of course, dedicated to Keynesian economics, a dressed up ideology that encourages politicians to pay off voting blocs and interest groups that share their aspirations in the guise of "stimulus."

Now, 19 months into his presidency, Obama expresses puzzlement at the stubborn refusal of the American economy to recover despite more than a trillion dollars in "stimulus" spending. Speculation is rife that the economy will turn down again, producing a dreaded double-dip recession.

What's going on?

Sane America has gone on strike against the Obama administration's obsessive effort to impose rule by a leftist elite, including "czars,"  that has seized control of government and uses it to impose policies that most Americans oppose.

To counter this bizarre assault on American values, individuals, families, small businesses and large corporations are reasserting their individuality and desire for freedom by hoarding cash, withholding spending to thwart a government that some regard as wayward, and many view as their enemy.

If the economy were to recover strongly and quickly, the Democrat-controlled Congress could ramrod the rest of Obama's statist agenda and complete the government takeover of matters traditionally reserved for individual discretion. That is, for many of us, a frightening vision.

By hoarding cash, American individuals and businesses are slowing or stopping the recovery and thwarting the onset of death panels, carbon taxes, social engineering by the Environmental Protection Agency and other nightmarish aspects of the Obama scheme.

So far, the citizenry is defeating Obama and his thug army - the left wing of the Democrat Party.

In 71 days the voters can derail the Obama agenda and begin the process of repealing the parts that have been enacted by reducing the Democrat Party to minority status in the House and Senate.

That's the stimulus that unhappy and frightened voters are looking for, and it would begin to revive the economy.

Once Obama has lost his congressional accomplices, the leftist assault on individual liberty will lose its thrust and American consumers will again be willing to spend and businesses to invest in future growth.

A full blown recovery is unlikely to happen, however, until Obama has an epiphany or is clearly headed for the ranks of easily ignored ex-presidents. At that point, celebratory spending will begin, to be followed by the normal pursuit of things we didn't know we needed until we started believing that we still have a future.

That moment is not yet at hand. If Democrats want to speed its arrival, they could initiate a repeal of Obamcare, begin the abolition of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and start neutering the EPA.

Watching the death throes of costly, redundant, wayward and sometimes corrupt government institutions would be the best stimulus of all.

As the U.S. economy struggles, an austere Europe rebounds

The stark reality of American leaders receiving warnings from their European counterparts about the need to curb spending and government deficits has been accompanied by the rising euro and falling U.S. dollar. On Monday, Aug. 2, the euro soared to a three-month high against the dollar and the U.K. pound reached its highest value in six months.

Policy decisions can and do affect the value of currencies. Look no further for a recent example than the United Kingdom and its new government’s unveiling of a fiscal austerity plan. Within a few months, the British pound has gained more than 11% in value, following a drop in May, after assuaging uncertainty among market observers about whether the U.K. government would address its troublesome deficit.

The International Monetary Fund on July 8 specifically called for the United States to intensify efforts to curb budget deficits. The 185-member international lending agency warned about a potential double-dip recession in housing, continued problems in commercial real estate and risk to the U.S. economy from the European debt woes.

Obama: "...stronger by the day"

Randall Hoven

"... despite temporary setbacks, uncertain world events, and the resulting ups and downs of the market, this economy is getting stronger by the day." President Obama, June 2, 2010.

Americans gloomy about economic prospects

Views of the country's short- and long-term economic future are gloomier these days than they have been at any time since President Obama took office in January of last year.

Forty-two percent (42%) of American adults now expect the U.S. economy to be weaker in one year’s time, up three points from January and the highest level found in 14 months of regular tracking on the question, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Thirty-six percent (36%) believe the economy will be stronger in a year, down two points from last month. That’s the lowest level of confidence measured since tracking began in January 2009.

Blocked oil would supply U.S. for 8 years, gas for 12 years, costing Americans trillions of dollars

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Restrictions on oil and gas drilling will cost the U.S. economy $2.36 trillion through 2029, according to a study requested by state utility regulators and paid for in part by industry-sponsored groups.

Drilling restrictions in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off the U.S. coastline are blocking access to about nine years’ worth of U.S. oil and gas consumption, according to the report. Among sponsors are the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and the industry-funded Gas Technology Institute, of Des Plaines, Illinois.

Former President George W. Bush and Congress ended bans in 2008 on drilling along the U.S. coastline. The Interior Department hasn’t acted to open the newly available areas, including offshore Alaska and on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Congress has kept the Arctic refuge off limits.

“Required actions to access the energy resources thought to exist there have not been taken,” O’Neal Hamilton, a former chairman of South Carolina’s Public Service Commission, said of the areas where leasing hasn’t proceeded. “Our research allows policy makers to know the extent of the resource base and the effects that maintaining the restrictions would have on the country.”

The report, issued today, said opening the areas would free up 43 billion barrels of oil and 286 trillion cubic feet of gas. The U.S. used 22.8 trillion cubic feet of gas and 5.2 billion barrels of oil in 2009, according to a press release issued with the report.

Arthur Laffer says Obama's economic policies taking U.S. toward a "train wreck" in 2011

Arthur Laffer, creator of the Laffer Curve that showed how low tax rates boost economic growth, is warning anyone who will listen that the economy is headed for a “train wreck” in 2011 that will make the current recession look tame by comparison.

The famed economist, whose supply-side, tax-cutting policies enacted by President Reagan in 1981 put the economy on a record-breaking, 25-year economic trajectory of growth and prosperity, is telling Americans not to be lulled by sporadic signs of growth this year, because the economy is headed for a sharper decline next year when tax rates are expected to jump sharply, sending the economy into a new tailspin.

“It will make the decline in U.S. output from 2010 to 2011 worse than the decline in output in 2008 and 2009 which will catastrophic,” Laffer said in an interview with HUMAN EVENTS.

In a wide-ranging discussion about where the economy is headed, and the fiscal, tax and monetary reasons why, Laffer gives a bleak forecast of where President Obama and his administration are taking the country in the next three years -- which he predicts will end with Obama’s defeat in 2012.