Obama Still Isn't Serious About the Economy

Back in April, I explained that Barak Obama has never been serious about the economy. And its clear that he still has no intention of  doing anything to reduce the deficit or unemployment. 

The most recent example is Obama's reaction to the latest job reports. As usual, Obama's talk about unemployment and what he plans to do about the economy is empty and flat.  The reason why his speech is so hollow is because he's made numerous promises to fix the economy and yet he never gets around to doing it. Making these repeated promises yet devoting all of his energies to other projects gives people the impression that Obama doesn't really care about the economy. Maybe he does. But that's not the impression Americans get from our President.

And it not just the President himself that appears to be so detached about the economy.  Its his entire administration. Recently, a top economic advisor to President Obama named Austan Goolsbee, has said Congress can help Obama reduce unemployment to 8.2% only if they pass more legislation that does more of the same thing that the Obama administration has been doing since they entered the White House. 

Mr. Goolsbee's promise that unemployment would fall 8.2% reminds Americans of the Obama's promise at the beginning of his term as President that unemployment would not rise above 8% if we let Congress pass the bailout/stimulus bills. 

What's even more mind boggling is that they're trying to convince American to let them throw more taxpayer money at fixing the problem to get unemployment down to the rate they said unemployment would never pass. 

To demonstrate how careless the Obama Administration is about the economy, Obama’s senior political adviser David Plouffe made a jaw dropping prediction about unemployment as a factor in the 2012 election: 

“The average American does not view the economy through the prism of GDP or unemployment rates or even monthly jobs numbers,” Plouffe said, according to Bloomberg. “People won’t vote based on the unemployment rate, they’re going to vote based on: ‘How do I feel about my own situation? Do I believe the president makes decisions based on me and my family?’ ”

The Obama Administration supports David Plouffe's prediction because the White House spokesman Jay Carney made the very same observation about the upcoming election: 

CARNEY:  Well, I understand that we’re engaged in the – or rather, the Republicans are engaged in a primary campaign, trying to get some media attention.  I don’t know where, you know, the voters that some other folks might be talking to — but — or — but most people do not sit around their kitchen table and analyze GDP and unemployment numbers.  They talk about how they feel their own economic situation is.  And they measure it by whether they have a job, whether they have job security; whether their house – whether they’re meeting their house payment, whether their mortgage is underwater; whether they have the money to pay for their children’s education or they don’t; whether they’re dealing with a sick parent and can afford that, or whether they can’t.

They do not sit around analyzing The Wall Street Journal or other — or Bloomberg to look at the — you know, analyze the numbers.  Now, maybe some folks do, but not most Americans.  I think that’s the point David Plouffe was making; that’s the point the president was making just moments ago in his statement in the Rose Garden.

David Plouffe and Jay Carney's prediction about unemployment not being a factor in 2012 is false. They think that American's don't pay attention to these things and that unemployment won't matter at all. Yet, Americans do monitor these things. We watch the news, read blogs and talk to friends and family about the economy. We know too many people that are unemployed. Recently, a Fox News poll found that 94% of Americans have negative view of economic conditions. There's also a Pew poll taken last month that reported that 61% of Americans see their own “situation” as just fair or poor.Its clear that Americans do pay close attention to the economy.  

As a result, its clear that the Obama Administration hopes that the American people will be unconcerned about the economy as they are. The White House's indifference to the economy will matter in 2012 and they know it.