By Justin Haskins
Last week, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan delivered a passionate speech in support of presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at the Democratic Party’s convention in Philadelphia. According to Duggan, Clinton’s policies will lift Detroit from the depths of economic ruin, while Donald Trump’s economic proposals would actually reverse recent economic progress.
“When (Clinton) looks at Detroit and every other city in America, she sees the ability to create an economy for everyone,” said Duggan.
Unfortunately for Duggan and Clinton, the reality is that President Barack Obama’s economic policies have largely failed America, and Clinton’s economic proposals offer the same old tired ideas that are holding the United States and Michigan back from experiencing the kind of radical economic growth witnessed in the 1980s.
Under Obama’s policies, real median household income is down 2.3 percent, and food-stamp rolls have skyrocketed from 33.4 million in 2009 to 43.5 million in April 2016. The average per-person cost of food-stamp benefits also increased, by 24 percent from George W. Bush’s final year in office to the start of 2016.
The national debt has grown from $10.63 trillion at the start of Obama’s presidency to $19.4 trillion today, which means each taxpayer owes about $162,191. Also, home ownership is down; more than 94 million people were not in the labor force in May; and Tom Giovanetti at the Institute for Policy Innovation says Obama is the first president in U.S. history not to have at least one year in office with a national GDP growth rate of at least 3 percent.
A quick glance at Clinton’s economic policy positions reveals her plan is simply to continue pushing the nation in the wrong direction.
On Hillary Clinton’s campaign website, she outlines several ways to improve jobs and wages. Among those solutions, Clinton suggests launching “our country’s boldest investments in infrastructure since the construction of our interstate highway system in the 1950s”; focusing on creating “clean energy” jobs; rescinding tax breaks for companies that “outsource jobs abroad”; giving $10 billion to businesses to help improve manufacturing; investing in “debt-free” college; and punishing the wealthy with a “fair share” tax “surcharge.”
Sound familiar? Every single one of these promises, in one form or another, were made by Obama when he ran for president in 2008. And what happened to all of those taxes that were supposed to pay down the debt, the countless green-energy jobs and the “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects?
Clinton can’t turn back from Obama’s failed policies because that would require acknowledging they haven’t worked. Her only hope for victory in November is to stay the course and ensure the election remains a debate over character. If the focus of the election ever turns to Obama’s record and Clinton’s ridiculous attempt to emulate it, she’ll lose by default.
No matter what control-obsessed, big-government candidates say, Americans know the Democrats’ policy platform, which espouses the virtues of government power and manipulation at every turn, hasn’t worked over Obama’s two terms in office, which is why Rasmussen Reports says 70 percent of likely voters believe the country is on the “wrong track.”
If Michiganians want to see real prosperity return to their state, they should demand policies that unburden business owners and job creators, lower taxes for all Americans, and unleash the power of freedom and innovation. Top-down, bureaucracy-centered government rule hasn’t worked over the past seven years, and it won’t work over the next four either.
Justin Haskins is executive editor of The Heartland Institute.