Obama Blows Up The Republican Myth That His Economy Has Been Bad For Business

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In an interview with The Economist, President Obama took apart the Republican myth that his economy has been bad for business.

Transcript:

The Economist: Yes, tell us about that. We see a lot of business people and they do complain about regulation.

Mr Obama: They always complain about regulation. That’s their job. Let’s look at the track record. Let’s look at the facts. Since I have come into office, there’s almost no economic metric by which you couldn’t say that the US economy is better and that corporate bottom lines are better. None.

So if, in fact, our policies have produced a record stock market, record corporate profits, 52 months of consecutive job growth, 10m new jobs, the deficit being cut by more than half, an energy sector that’s booming, a clean-energy sector that’s booming, a reduction of carbon pollution greater than the Europeans or any other country, a housing market that has bounced back, and an unemployment rate that is now lower than it was pre-Lehman—I think you’d have to say that we’ve managed the economy pretty well and business has done okay.

There are always going to be areas where business does not want to be regulated because regulations are inconvenient.

When Republican claim that the Obama economy is bad for business, what they mean is that any regulations are bad for business. Congressional Republicans want a completely unregulated business environment. It is the reason why corporations and billionaires are dumping so much money into Republican political campaigns.

The only way Republicans can sell deregulating businesses to such an extreme that it harms consumers and workers and pollutes the air and water is to dangle the carrot of “trickle-down” jobs in front of voters, mocking their desperation and desire to work.

Trickle-down hasn’t worked yet. Even Reagan budget director David Stockman, who pushed tax cuts as trickle-down, admitted that it was hard to sell trickle-down. “It’s kind of hard to sell ‘trickle down,’ so the supply-side formula was the only way to get a tax policy that was really ‘trickle down.’ Supply-side is ‘trickle-down’ theory.” He then explained that supply-side was based on faith, on a belief about the way the world works. (Note that optimism is believed to be an important factor in the economy, which explains why Republicans are so consistently negative when a Democrat is in office, and then deny an obvious and proven horrific recession when a Republican is in the White House.)

It’s probably time to try something new. Like the Obama economy, which contrary to trickle-down beliefs, is actually working. It would be nice if Congressional Republicans would do something for the economy, instead of trying to add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit with unpaid for tax cuts to business. Something that actually works for the people. Like a real jobs bill, instead of corporate giveaways and oil company subsidies marked as “jobs bills”.

The Obama economy has been a raging success for business. Had it not started from the unforeseen pits of Bush doom and had it not been obstructed at every turn, deliberately, by Republicans, the American people might be a heck of a lot better off. It’s ironic, but this Democratic president has done everything Republicans promise their ideology will lead to, while they were warning the country about his “liberal agenda”.

That “liberal agenda” is looking pretty good from here. Maybe we need some of that in the House.