The Wizard of Washington
Written By: Chris Richter
The Wizard of Washington has revealed himself from behind the curtain and to the surprise of many; there was just a man who didnt know how to run the show, except by pulling on some levers and making some sounds. For Dorothy, that reality carried a heavy price tag as the Wizard of Oz didnt have the capabilities to send her home. For Barack Obama, that reality also carried a heavy price tag as the Wizard of Washington doesnt have the capabilities to get us out of the economic trouble were presently in.
When Barack Obama was running for President, Americans were mesmerized by the first African American Presidential Candidate in history. They were mesmerized by how well he could speak. Americans disapproved of the War in Iraq and Obama promised that they would be home if they elected him. Americans liked the idea that he represented a difference from what they had seen for the previous eight years. He rose to the heights of rock star status and his fans cheered him on to the White House.
Now that he has arrived in the White House, the long lines of fans waiting to shake his hand are still there, but instead of asking for a handshake, theyre asking for a handout. And with buzz phrases such as the economy is going to collapse if we dont pass this bill now, the amount of money that will be available for handouts will be significant. Oh and despite popular belief, our economy is not about to collapse today, tomorrow, next month, or even next year.
The latest stimulus bill in the Senate puts the initial price tag at $850 billion thats almost $3,000 for every man, woman, and child in this country. This figure does not include a few other amounts, which have been cleverly hidden from the public. First, it does not include the interest for borrowing the money after all we dont have the money so we have to borrow it from other people and other countries. Second, it does not include the extra amount that will have to be spent once the projects are completed (and how many government projects run over budget? the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center was projected to cost $71 million, finally finishing 3 years behind schedule at a cost of $621 million). Keep in mind that the upkeep for these new roads and bridges, among other projects, will be substantial. Third, it doesnt account for what happens to the workers once the projects are completed. Do they simply roll into new government projects (at an additional cost) or do they file for unemployment benefits (yet another cost). Trillions of dollars later, instead of just one bridge to no where in Alaska, throughout the country we will be having many bridges to everywhere.
Politicians spending money is equitable to young boys putting out house fires with water guns they look cute in the newspaper, but its neither the right tool, nor the right people to be doing the job. In a time when economic ingenuity needs to be at its zenith, we allow politicians, who have no business experience, to lead the way. At the head of the line is our Commander in Chief, our CEO, who has not one day of business experience under his hat.
Lack of business experience is not only counter-productive, but it is also dangerous. Not only do the latest versions of the stimulus bill do little if anything to actually stimulate the economy (allocating in the latest Senate bill $110 million to the General Accounting Office and Agency Inspectors General just to oversee the money being spent), but they place even a larger burden on future generations (the latest Senate version raises the national debt ceiling to $12.14 trillion).
The only way to create a sustainable and prosperous economy is through private business not through the government. Entrepreneurship is what made this country the strongest financial center in the world. Despite what some will say in the media, even today, the reality is that our economy is the strongest of any country in the world and it will remain that way as long as we have a free market instead of socialism, socialism is the economy that the President and his allies in Congress want. Socialism has never worked at any point in any country in the world. Nor will it work in this country today. It was said once if we dont learn from history, we are bound to repeat its mistakes. If we look at what other countries have done throughout history, by turning to socialism, we would see numerous problems with their economy and their country as a whole. In the desire to equalize a people, the people become more unequal than ever.
During difficult times, we must not look at socialism as the answer to our problems, but must encourage private business to fix the economy, by having them create jobs and by having them give workers more money, who then in turn buy more and grow the economy. The best approach to doing this is to create economic enterprise zones, where among other positive actions, business taxes would be cut if not eliminated. By allowing businesses to keep more of their own money, they are able to reinvest that money in their business, growing that money, far faster than the average person could, let alone the government. Layoffs would slow down and hiring would increase. President Obama wants to create or save almost 4 million new jobs this is where it needs to happen. Only when this happens will we create sustainable jobs, only then will we turn the economy around, and only then will we not burden future generations with a debt already much too heavy for them to bear.
It is important to realize that while there may be someone claiming to be the Wizard of Washington, eventually the Wizard reveals himself and can sometimes show a very different person. And when you actually look at the levers hes pulling, you might realize that the noises coming out were not the noises you expected to hear.