The speechwriters at the White House have dug deep into their rhetorical bag of tricks to help President Barack Obama get public sentiment on his side over funding for the federalgovernment and the debt ceiling.
During a speech last week in Maryland, President Obama told those in attendance that not only were Republicans threatening a government shutdown, they were threatening a so-called “economic shutdown” as they tried negotiate changes or delays to ObamaCare for a debt ceiling increase.
“Some of the same Republicans who warned three years ago that this law would be “Armageddon” — that’s what they said — “Armageddon” — now they’re threatening steps that actually would badly hurt our entire economy — not because of the Affordable Care Act but because of what they’re threatening to do,” said President Obama last Thursday in Largo, Maryland.
“Some have threatened a government shutdown if they can’t shut down this law. Others have actually threatened an economic shutdown by refusing to pay America’s bills if they can’t delay the law,” he added. “That’s not going to happen as long as I’m President. The Affordable Care Act is here to stay.”
There would be some short-term economic effects if the debt ceiling weren’t increased, but the economy wouldn’t shutdown. House Republicans did offer a fix for this, by the way. They’ve twice passed legislation (back in May and again in the Continuing Resolution) that would require the Treasury Department to prioritize debt spending in the event of fiscal turmoil. Unfortunately, Senate Democrats, who would rather use the debt ceiling as a political tool, wouldn’t take it up.
Similarly, President Obama doesn’t want to negotiate with congressional Republicans on the Continuing Resolution or the debt ceiling. He says that negotiating on the latter is “unprecedented,” which is simply untrue. And not only does President Obama insist that the government saved the economy through bailouts and stimulus spending, as he has said so many times before, he’s now claiming that the economy would shutdown if the debt ceiling weren’t raised.
But the idea that the economy is dependent on the government so much that it would be shutdown is an indication of how truly far left President Obama is. Now, it may just be another cheap rhetorical line that he’s using to try to persuade the American people that they should listen to him, but it’s likely more of a reflection of his underlying beliefs.
To accept President Obama’s narrative, one would have to believe that the federal government is the economy.
A friend, Aaron Rainwater, explained the folly of President Obama’s thinking over the weekend. “The economy exists on its own and in spite of government’s so called ‘help’ — it will do just fine without the other,” he wrote. “It’s the government who can’t survive without the economy—government has nothing and can do nothing without first stealing value from those who have produced it.”
Through taxes, regulation and debt, the federal government is destructive of wealth, which is why the Founding Fathers created a Constitution that was intended to limit its size and scope. Unfortunately, Washington has gotten away from that and has far too frequently blurred the lines between government and business, and both political parties are guilty of it.
In McCulloch v. Maryland, a landmark 19th Century Supreme Court decision, Chief Justice John Marshall once said that the “power to tax involves the power to destroy.” In the 21 Century, the power to tax, regulate, and spend on the nation’s credit card are the policies of economic destruction.
Taxation for more than the constitutional functions of government rob people of the fruits of their labor. The regulatory burden prevents hardworking business owners from expanding or paying workers more. And deficit spending and unfunded liabilities virtually guarantees that future generations will be saddled with the excesses of the past — this is, truly, taxation without representation.
The perilous path the United States is on isn’t because the federal government spends so much that has to constantly borrow to pay its bills. Rather than tackle the drivers of spending, President Obama and his friends in Congress would rather keep giving speeches that blame Republicans, higher-income earners or whatever the boogyman is of the day than address the real problems facing the country. These are truly the irresponsible actors in the current debate.
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