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Does Any One Read in This Town?
By Lurita Doan
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Dismal, second quarter GDP figures, show only 1.6 percent growth, further proof
of the failure of the Obama Administration’s economic and job creation policies.
Late last month, reports showing unemployment is at 9.3% and sales of single-
family homes have dropped to a fifteen year low make it clear that during the
past 19 months, the Obama Administration has squandered trillions of dollars in
failed policies. But you’d never guess that from Administration press releases.
The dichotomy between the statistical data and the Obama Administration’s spin
is nowhere more apparent than in the recently published Mid Session Review
Report which discussed federal budget objectives and accomplishments to-date,
as well as projections for the future. The report contained overly optimistic
rhetoric not supported by the report’s distressingly dismal financial data.
For example, the report stated on page 8 that “the Administration expects
economic growth and job creation to continue for the rest of 2010 and to rise in
2011 and beyond.” This phrase is now becoming the Administration’s mantra.
The problem with this oft-repeated, rosy scenario of future growth is there never
was significant economic growth or job creation in 2010. The Obama
Administration’s anti-business policies are crushing small businesses, and with
unemployment at 9.3% and over 5 million jobs lost since 2009, there hasn’t been
any significant job creation despite the Administration’s many statements to the
contrary.
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It’s not clear who, if any, actually reads the many reports published by the
Executive and Legislative branches of the government. Washington seems to
have entered the age of MBES—Management By Executive Summary, where
only the first few pages of any document are actually read. The problem is that,
in Washington, often, the government’s Executive Summaries paint rosy
scenarios, resplendent with Administration wishful thinking, unsupported by the
report’s underlying data.
For example, the recent unemployment report for July issued by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics was touted as a success by the Obama Administration because
70,000 jobs were supposedly created in the private sector. What was ignored
was the startling, double-digit, unemployment numbers among minorities and
teens within this country also contained in the report.
What Americans are seeing is a disturbing trend going back to the early days of
the Obama Administration, when the 407-page, $787 billion stimulus was passed
which few in congress had read. Current Democrat leaders have figured out that
if the reports and the legislation are unwieldy enough, a few Americans may
read the Executive Summary, but even fewer will read the report’s fine print.
Democrats seem to have learned that if they state the same disinformation often
enough, eventually, it becomes accepted and repeated as if it were fact
because few are going to the source and reading the reports.
Consider: a 1428 page Cap and Trade bill passed in the House which even
Congressman Waxman admitted he had not read, even though he, supposedly,
is the author of the bill. Americans witnessed the debacle of the 2454 page
Healthcare legislation, where Speaker Pelosi stated “we have to pass the bill” in
order to find out what’s in it.
Another Administration official, Peter Orszag has exited the White House, quietly
leaving his position as Director of OMB. Yet, while reading the Mid Session
Report’s Executive Summary, few Americans would know that, without having to
bear any of the consequences, Orszag oversaw what is possibly the most
irresponsible, least accountable, growth in government in the history of this
nation.
Orszag will likely go down in history as one of the primary architects of a failed
set of financial policies and budget shenanigans that have destroyed American’s
personal wealth and bankrupted the nation. But, Orszag’s timing was
impeccable: he left before the gig was up and the cat got out of the bag. It is
very likely that he will soon begin making the speaking circuit, posturing as a
fiscal hawk, talking about the need for budget cuts and repackaging his failed
tenure at OMB.
We have reached a sad point in our representative democracy when the folks
who represent and work for all Americans can’t be bothered to read the
documents that are required in order to do their jobs, and are shameless in
admitting that they have no intention of doing the work required to be competent
in their positions. Perhaps even more disturbing, whether it is bloated, self-
serving legislation or misleading White House reports, the Democrat leadership
have figured out that, with the careful use of an Executive Summary, which says
whatever they want it to say, they truly can fool all of the people all of the time.
Lurita Alexis Doan is an African American conservative commentator who
writes about issues affecting the federal government.
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