The Obama administration and the Democrats gambled and played politics with the financial meltdown, the poor economy, and even the Gulf oil spill. The Democrats philosophy is to never waste a good crisis. In other words, they used the economic recession as an excuse to push healthcare reform and they used the Gulf oil spill to push their green agenda. In essence, Democrats used fear mongering and bully tactics to force their progressive ideology onto the electorate. Well, the electorate returned the favor this midterm election in a big way, especially in the House. During a recession the only thing the electorate cares about is getting the economy turned around. And the Democrats failed miserably to do this instead focusing their priorities on healthcare reform, cap and trade, financial reform, and other tedious matters instead of creating jobs.
Sure, the Democrats passed the Recovery Act (862 billion dollar stimulus) to revive the economy. However, this legislation failed to create jobs and unemployment and underemployment numbers increased several percentage points. Over time the electorate learned over 20% of the stimulus was spent on pet projects and another 20% was a down payment on the Obama green and education agenda. Most of the remaining money was used to extend entitlement benefits for states. And what’s worse the White House is manufacturing fictitious statistics such as “saved jobs” to defend this abysmal law.
The Democrats insisted that healthcare reform was needed not only to get every American health insurance, but it was needed to pull the United States out of the economic recession. They reasoned that affordable healthcare would provide middle class families a much needed financial break. Unfortunately, most Americans received a reality check when their 2011 insurance premium bills arrived in the mail. It is no surprise to anyone that read the ObamaCare legislation that insurance premiums have gone up, on average, 15% next year. Once again, the electorate learned that Democrats used the economic downturn as an excuse to pursue healthcare reform and their personal legacies. And what’s worse the legislation failed to accomplish their promises of lowering healthcare insurance premiums and decreasing the cost of healthcare.
The Democrats used the financial meltdown as an excuse to regulate the financial sector. Sure, this makes sense, but once again the electorate learned the legislation failed to regulate financial government entities, which failed to prevent the financial meltdown. While private sector financial institutions are once again profitable, the taxpayers continue to bailout government run Fannie and Freddie. And let’s not forget how the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, and the Securities Exchange Commission failed to see the warning signs that the housing market was in chaos.
The Democrats also tried to use both the economic recession and the Gulf oil spill as a reason to pass cap and trade legislation. This legislation passed in the House but thankfully the legislation’s unpopularity prevented the Senate from pursuing the bill. After all, the electorate understood passing this legislation would lead directly to a 40% increase in their energy costs.
Heck, the Democrats even failed to address the Bush era tax cuts, which will expire at the end of the year. Thus, most Americans are not sure if their taxes will remain the same or go up. This once again displays the Democrats failure to directly tackle the economic recession.
The bottom line is if the Democrats focused solely on the economic recession instead of using it as an excuse to push their agenda, the electorate would not have punished them. The Democrats seem clueless and dumbfounded that their policies have failed to cure unemployment and economic woes. They fail to see the roadblocks and uncertainty created by their “historic” legislation that has left companies and business owners afraid to hire new employees. Face it; no astute business owner is going to hire new employees when faced with potentially higher taxes, higher healthcare costs, and potentially higher energy costs.
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