American Elephants

President Obama made some formal remarks in the State Dining Room on the reopening of the government. It was an amazing speech, perhaps the most self-serving speech ever given, by anyone ever. He continued to blame Republicans for threatening default, although no Republican threatened default at any time. All the default talk came from President Obama himself. It was President Obama who claimed that if we defaulted — old folks on Social Security wouldn’t get their checks. It was President Obama who claimed that  — we would not be able to pay our bills. It was President Obama who tried — to talk the Dow Jones Industrial average down with talk of default. And now he’s trying to emphasize, once again, that it’s all the Republicans’ fault.

So the key now is a budget that cuts out the things that we don’t need, closes corporate tax loopholes that don’t help create jobs, and frees up resources for the things that do help us grow — like education and infrastructure and research.  And these things historically have not been partisan.  And this shouldn’t be as difficult as it’s been in past years because we already spend less than we did a few years ago.  Our deficits are half of what they were a few years ago.  The debt problems we have now are long term, and we can address them without shortchanging our kids, or shortchanging our grandkids, or weakening the security that current generations have earned from their hard work.

So that’s number one.  Number two, we should finish fixing the job of — let me say that again.  Number two, we should finish the job of fixing our broken immigration system.

There’s already a broad coalition across America that’s behind this effort of comprehensive immigration reform — from business leaders to faith leaders to law enforcement.  In fact, the Senate has already passed a bill with strong bipartisan support that would make the biggest commitment to border security in our history; would modernize our legal immigration system; make sure everyone plays by the same rules, makes sure that folks who came here illegally have to pay a fine, pay back taxes, meet their responsibilities.  That bill has already passed the Senate. And economists estimate that if that bill becomes law, our economy would be 5 percent larger two decades from now.  That’s $1.4 trillion in new economic growth.

So now the Republicans cut the deficit with their wretched sequester, and I’ll take credit for that. But now that’s enough deficit cutting, and I need more money to spend on — wait for it — education and infrastructure and research. How money spent here creates jobs has not yet been explained. Would any big infrastructure project be ready to go before Obama has left office?

There may be a broad coalition behind comprehensive immigration reform, but you will notice that it does not include the American people. Our immigration system is broken because the President of the United States refuses to enforce the immigration laws, and the people oppose any amnesty for the same reason. Corporate America in general, and Silicon Valley in particular, want greatly increased immigration so they can get cheaper IT workers. America has no shortage of qualified STEM graduates. Corporations do not want to hire those who have been laid off during the recession. They assume, I guess, that anyone unemployed was laid off for reason. Unfair? Absolutely.

Mr. Obama assumes that jobs are created by government by spending money on education, infrastructure and research. They are not. Anxious businessmen have tried and tried to explain to this president that high corporate taxes, excessive regulation and absolute uncertainty about what this government will do next are killing their ability to hire, to expand and to take risks. President Obama will not listen, and has not been listening for over four years.

Education? Recent college graduates cannot find the jobs they prepared for and are working part-time in fast food. Or is it the free kindergarten for four-year-olds that you expect to transform the job market? It takes years for most infrastructure projects to get off the ground, often because of excessive regulation. Your administration has sponsored all sorts of new products and new research to develop alternative energy that no one needs or wants, and most of the grants have come to nothing except bankruptcy.