I have blogged in this space many times that policies have consequences, and the president’s failed economic policies are having dire consequences. But, the president has doubled down on sticking with what clearly is doing the economy harm. Thus, when the president noted last week that “the private sector is doing fine,” I wasn’t surprised, but rather, bitterly disappointed. It tells me this administration has no plans to change course with its economic policies — no matter that 18% of Americans either can’t find a job or are working part time but want to work full time.
One who was shocked by Mr. Obama’s comment is Vice President Biden’s former top economic advisor.
When Jared Bernstein, Vice President Biden’s former top economist, began reviewing notes of President Obama’s press conference on Friday, he stopped cold when he read “the private sector is doing fine.”
“It caught my eye,” Bernstein told National Journal. Bernstein immediately fired off an email to the intern who took the notes to make sure it was accurate and not a rough or garbled translation. “I thought, ‘Did he really say that?'”
To his dismay, the intern wrote back that those were Obama’s words. Verbatim.
“I think he misspoke,” Bernstein said.
Asked would he have winced if he’d still been in the White House, Bernstein said: “I winced having not been in there.”
Mr. Bernstein, imagine how much the thousands and thousands and thousands of unemployed and underemployed Americans “winced” when they heard the president reveal his thoughts on the private sector, which is their hope for finding work. They, Mr. Bernstein, should be shocked at the president’s view of, and plan for, this economy.
