President Obama and The Economy

President Obama and The Economy

Every political failure in a democracy begins with bad storytelling. When false narratives and incoherent story lines dominate public conversation, poor decisions are sure to follow.

So it is with the presidency of Barack Obama. This brilliant orator's inability to tell a simple tale of how America has ended up mired in an economic recession blighting the lives of millions borders upon pathology.

Writing in the New York Times, psychologist Drew Westen imagines how Obama might have framed it: "I know you're scared and angry," he could have said. "Many of you have lost your jobs, your homes, your hope. This was a disaster, but it was not a natural disaster. It was made by Wall Street gamblers who speculated with your lives and futures. It was made by conservative extremists who told us that if we just eliminated regulations and rewarded greed and recklessness, it would all work out. But it didn't work out."

Ah, but that would be needlessly confrontational. It would be playing the "blame game." Every Republican commentator from sea to shining sea agrees that telling the plain story of how George W. Bush turned the balanced budgets he inherited from Bill Clinton into a $10.6 trillion National Debt, an ongoing $1.3 trillion annual deficit, and an economy in free fall is terribly rude.

They prefer a bogus tale of wild over-spending by the current administration, which the White House does little to correct. A born conciliator, Obama seemingly hates to make anybody angry, with the result that hardly anybody's happy with his leadership, while his GOP rivals treat him with open contempt.

"The real conundrum," Westen adds "is why the president seems so compelled to take both sides of every issue, encouraging voters to project whatever they want on him ... That a large section of the country views him as a socialist while many in his own party are concluding that he does not share their values speaks volumes -- but not the volumes his advisers are selling: that if you make both the right and left mad, you must be doing something right."

The failure, however, isn't Obama's alone. With a few signal exceptions, journalists aren't doing much better. Part of the problem is the lazy he said/she said convention reporters use to cover their ignorance and to avoid criticism, mainly from the right.

Economist Dean Baker, one of the few -- along with Paul Krugman -- who warned against the real estate bubble that caused Wall Street's near-collapse in 2008, regularly skewers pusillanimous reporting on his "Beat the Press" weblog.

He recently quoted a CBS News report archly chiding Obama for blaming "policies inherited from his predecessor's administration for the soaring debt." The site notes that Obama "singles out:

-- 'two wars we didn't pay for'

-- 'a prescription drug program for seniors ... we didn't pay for'

-- 'tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 that were not paid for'

[Obama] goes on to blame the recession, and its resulting decrease in tax revenue on businesses, for making fewer sales, and more employees being laid off. He says the recession also resulted in more government spending due to increased unemployment insurance payments."

But, contrary to CBS's presentation, these aren't debatable assertions by a politician seeking to deflect criticism. They are facts, and should be reported as such.

Some more facts: Total U.S. government spending under Bush rose almost 88 percent, from roughly $2 trillion in FY2002 to $3.5 trillion in FY2009. On Obama's watch, it's increased another 7.2 percent

President Obama states the truth once, maybe twice. Phone and privacy hacker Rupert Murdoch's Fox News and the AM radio right-wing hate merchants tell lies about the economy over and over again everyday. Which message do you think sinks in with the average American. Conservatives and conservative economic polices ( sometimes carried out by DINOS - democrats in name only) trashed the family car. Gee, what do you know it takes longer and more efforts to rebuild a car than it does to crash it. Not only that but conservative Republican in the House of Representatives have tied one of Obama's hands behind his back by obstructing every effort to create jobs and repair the economy. There might not be a new jobs bill because conservatives who said deficits didn't matter from 2000 to 2008 now claim we have a spending problem(see chart). Conservatives will only stop screwing up the lives of ordinary hard working Americans when those Americans put their foot down and say enough. If conservatives will not respect America they need to pack up and leave.