An unsigned editorial in the latest National Review dissects President Obama’s State of the Union address for its comments about threats to American competitiveness, “Obama’s latest catch-all justification for liberal domestic policies.”
American workers and companies can hardly be made more competitive … by a strategy as confused as the one Obama outlined. He said that the government cannot pick the industries of the future ? moments before explaining how it is going to create jobs in renewable energy. His proposal to improve the nation’s infrastructure centered on the faddish boondoggle of high-speed rail, which is wholly unsuitable for a country with our population density. He favors increased subsidies for higher education that are more likely to increase college tuitions than to prepare our work force for the challenges of tomorrow. His plan for Social Security must consist entirely of tax increases, since he ruled out every other expedient. He is unwilling to rethink a health-care plan that is likely to exacerbate the country’s economic burdens: increasing insurance premiums, reducing wages, raising taxes, and adding to the national debt. Obama’s economic strategy is a high-speed train to nowhere.
Writers in this forum have had much to say about government picking winners and losers, about the folly of high-speed rail, about higher-education subsidies, about the future of Social Security, and about the train wreck that is ObamaCare.
