Obama sounded more like Mouch than Teddy in Kansas speech

Listening to President Obama’s speech Tuesday in Osawatomie, Kan., I did not hear the roar of Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose, as he intended, but rather the bullying of Wesley Mouch, the bureaucrat in Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” who was determined to bring about social equality under an avalanche of federal regulations.

Obama in Kansas

It was a paean to the middle class, which somehow, inexplicably, has been in decline over the past decades under the stewardship of a Democratic Congress. But it is the fault of Republican presidents, don’t you know.

He bemoaned the growing gap between the incomes of the wealthy and the downtrodden middle class. It was classic class warfare.

“Long before the recession hit, hard work stopped paying off for too many people. Fewer and fewer of the folks who contributed to the success of our economy actually benefited from that success,” Obama orated without a shred of supporting documentation. “Those at the very top grew wealthier from their incomes and investments than ever before. But everyone else struggled with costs that were growing and paychecks that weren’t – and too many families found themselves racking up more and more debt just to keep up.”

He invoked President Clinton’s tax hikes and said they did not kill jobs as predicted.

What Obama did not point out is that the income gap worsened under Clinton, closed somewhat under George W. Bush and blossomed during his administration so far, according to an Investor’s Business Daily analysis, which also noted that a survey by the Economic Mobility Project discovered 71 percent think upward mobility is important, compared to 21 percent who placed a priority on reducing inequality.

IBD also noted that a study found half of the families that started in the lowest income bracket in 1996 moved up by 2005, while 57 percent of families fell out of the top 1 percent in that timeframe. But never let the facts get in the way of a good speech.

At times Obama was positively muddled in his blame game.

“(W)e had weak regulation and little oversight, and what did that get us? …” he asked. “Mortgage lenders that tricked families into buying homes they couldn’t afford. A financial sector where irresponsibility and lack of basic oversight nearly destroyed our entire economy.”

He conveniently forgets that it was the Carter and Clinton administrations that pushed the lenders into tricking those families in the first place to avoid being accused of redlining and having their mergers blocked.

He also made a push for naming a consumer watchdog, a move Republicans have resisted.

“Every day we go without a consumer watchdog in place is another day when a student, or a senior citizen, or member of our Armed Forces could be tricked into a loan they can’t afford – something that happens all the time,” he said.

Tricked into a student loan to obtain that higher education to be qualified for jobs that don’t exist? Tricked into a subprime mortgage?

Without the slightest bit of awareness of the illogical nature of what he was saying, Obama declared, “The unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree or more is about half the national average. Their income is twice as high as those who don’t have a high school diploma.”

So, we give everyone a college degree and high-paying jobs will magically appear?

In full-throated cheerleader mode, Obama rah-rahed, “Our success has never just been about survival of the fittest. It’s been about building a nation where we’re all better off. We pull together, we pitch in, and we do our part, believing that hard work will pay off; that responsibility will be rewarded; and that our children will inherit a nation where those values live on.”

I would not be surprised to hear Obama echo this monologue from the Mouch character issuing sweeping regulations in the name of fairness and social justice:

“In the name of the general welfare, to protect the people’s security, to achieve full equality and total stability, it is decreed for the duration of the national emergency that —

“Point One. All workers, wage earners and employees of any kind whatsoever shall henceforth be attached to their jobs and shall not leave not be dismissed nor change employment, under penalty of a term in jail. …

“Point Two. All industrial commercial, manufacturing and business establishments of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth remain in operation, and the owners of such establishments shall not quit not leave nor retire, nor close, sell or transfer their business, under penalty of the nationalization of their establishments and of any and all of their property. …”

Read some Washington Post fact checking on the speech here.

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