The president\u2019s reelection campaign has been running an ad titled \u201cThe Choice.\u201d \u00a0You have probably seen it during the Olympics or in other pricey slots. \u00a0In it, Mr. Obama, speaking to the camera, shows how little he has learned from the mistakes of his first term \u2013 and how extreme his plans are for the second.<\/p>\n
The ad starts straightforwardly. \u00a0The president tells us: \u201cOver the next four months you have a choice to make. Not just between two political parties or even two people. It\u2019s a choice between two very different plans for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
This, of course, is true.<\/p>\n
Then he turns to his campaign\u2019s talking points, rhetoric you hear from every surrogate and read in all their emails: \u201cGovernor Romney\u2019s plan would cut taxes for the folks at the very top, roll back regulations on big banks, and he says that if we do our economy will grow and everyone will benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, for an economy driven by entrepreneurship, in which the percentage of Americans working today is lower than it was on the day the president took office, Mr. Obama is determined to keep up his tax and regulatory attack on American enterprise. \u00a0This isn\u2019t news. \u00a0But it underscores a central fact of this year\u2019s choice: \u00a0When it comes to the economy, in four years Mr. Obama and his team have learned nothing.<\/p>\n
Then he turns to another talking point: \u201cBut you know what? We tried that top-down approach. It\u2019s what caused the mess in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, you can\u2019t expect that the president would acknowledge the truth here, that \u201crolling the dice,\u201d as Barney Frank put it, on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was the source of the crisis and that \u201crolling the dice\u201d was the policy of his party in Congress, something they prevented President George W. Bush\u2019s administration from stopping. \u00a0Nor can he acknowledge that \u201crolling the dice\u201d on less than credit worthy home purchasers remains central to his administration\u2019s program. \u00a0So Mr. Obama routinely blames the economic crisis on policies that, beginning under Ronald Reagan, gave us the longest peacetime economic expansion in our history. \u00a0This is all politics, of course. \u00a0But again, it underscores that after four years of failure, Team Obama has learned nothing.<\/p>\n
Then the ad turns to set up lines for the chilling part: \u201cI believe the only way to create an economy built to last is to strengthen the middle class. Asking the wealthy to pay a little more so we can pay down our debt in a balanced way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strengthening the middle class is, of course, a Democratic Party mantra\u2026 and a Republican Party goal. \u00a0It is universal to politics in a nation where almost every one of us considers him or herself part of the middle class. \u00a0But all the net new jobs over the past three decades have come from businesses started in the prior five years. \u00a0So where is the president going to find what he calls \u201cmiddle class jobs\u201d after he strangles entrepreneurship with higher taxes? \u00a0Meanwhile despite a nod to the deficit, he says not a word about spending that has gone from 20 percent of GDP before his presidency to 25 percent today. \u00a0Again, he gives not a hint of a lesson learned from his mistakes.<\/p>\n
Now to the chilling part. \u00a0The president tells us he is raising taxes \u201c[s]o that we can afford to invest in education, manufacturing, and homegrown American energy for good middle class jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The government will invest in manufacturing and energy exploration and development? Don\u2019t we fund these with private investment?<\/p>\n