Michael Barone offers the Washington Examiner his take on President Obama’s speech this week:
Bows to labor unions. In saluting the resilience of the American people, Obama specifically mentioned people ?building cars and teaching kids??both heavily unionized occupations. And his administration has been pouring money into them, through the General Motors and Chrysler bailouts and through the one-third of the 2009 stimulus package that went to state and local governments. Obama not only pays off his political debts, he gives his paymasters some psychic reward as well.
Where is the ?jobs bill?? Obama?s jobs proposals look like pretty small beer. He called for government spending on infrastructure and ?clean energy products,? but stopped short of endorsing the national infrastructure bank backed by smart Democrats like Brookings?s William Galston. He also called for a National Export Initiative to double exports in five years; just how that would be done he didn?t say and is, to put it politely, unclear. How can government do this? And, as Ira Stoll has pointed out, a five-year program has unfortunate echoes of Stalin?s five-year plans.
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