Here’s the transcript from President Obama’s press conference last night. The following are some lines that provide a clear answer on Obama’s view of government:
Obama on how government creates businesses and expands the economy (i.e. central planning):
“And so, if we’re growing, if we [government] are doing what’s necessary to create new businesses and to expand the economy, and we are making sure that we’re eliminating some of these programs that aren’t working, then, over time, that [deficit] gap can close.”
Comment: What business has the government created?
Obama on why all governments are the answer to improve the global economy:
“What I’ve suggested is, is that all of us [countries] are going to have to take steps in order to lift the economy.
We don’t want a situation in which some countries are making extraordinary efforts and other countries aren’t with the hope that somehow the countries that are making those important steps lift everybody up. And so somebody’s got to take leadership.”
Comment: Every country apparently needs massive government intervention and nationalization of industries.
Obama on why government should invest [i.e. spend] in the private sector, and specifically in “good products and services”:
“And what we have to do is invest in those things that will allow the Americans’ capacity for ingenuity and innovation, their ability to take risks, but make sure that those risks are grounded in good products and good services that they believe they can market to the rest of the country, that those models of economic growth are what we’re promoting, and that’s what I think our budget does.”
Obama on collectivism and the common good:
“We’ll recover from this recession, but it will take time, it will take patience and it will take an understanding that, when we all work together, when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interest to the wider set of obligations we have towards each other, that’s when we succeed, that’s when we prosper and that’s what is needed right now.”
“So let’s look towards the future with a renewed sense of common purpose, a renewed determination, and most importantly, renewed confidence that a better day will come.”
