myerstownherald.com

President Obama in his State of the Union address tried to shift his focus more toward the economy. The economy really drives politics because it is what people care about, having jobs. But one of the main reasons the economy has not improved is because of Obama’s own policies that he pursued before his address.
However, the policies that he now proposes to help the economy likely will not have a major impact, either.
Before the State of the Union address, Obama’s main focus over the past year has been trying to change the health-care system. Obama made this item the top item on his agenda. No great clamor existed that forced Obama to put his energies into changing the health-care system, though, particularly because people were most worried about the economy.
But Obama focused on the health-care system anyway. Unfortunately, when he talked about health care, Obama actually hurt the economy. The specter of a government-run health-care company or a reasonable approximation seemed to forecast higher taxes and more stagnant economic growth. Businesses were afraid because they did not know how high their taxes would go to pay for whatever new health-care legislation might be passed.
The stimulus plan did not help, either. Obama got Congress to pass a bill appropriating almost $800 billion in stimulus money, but much of this money has not been spent. What money has been spent cannot be said to have had any major effect on boosting the economy.
In his State of the Union address, Obama has called for a spending freeze. Obama made this move to appear fiscally conservative. But what the spending freeze would cover is not clear. Spending might actually rise, even if Congress does pass the spending freeze.
The best way for Obama to help the economy would be to end these big spending policies. He should stop trying to pass pork barrel bills that are in the guise of creating jobs. He also should abandon any plans for government to run health care in any form.
These plans only create uncertainty among businesses and further prevent an economic recovery. Instead, Obama should scale back his requests for new programs, and let businesses create new jobs.