Topic: Newsmax
Immigrant-basher James Walsh writes in his Jan. 10 Newsmax column about President Obama's speech in Osawatomie, Kansas:
Obama stated that cutting taxes and reducing regulations form an unworkable theory.
He said, “Now, it is a simple theory. And we have to admit, it’s one that speaks to our rugged individualism and healthy skepticism of too much government. That’s in America’s DNA . . . Here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked.”
Thus Obama’s Osawatomie speech denigrated American individuality, creativity, independence, and belief that a big-brother government of entitlements doesn’t know best.
Walsh is selectively quoting Obama to mislead about what he said. Here's the full quote from the speech:
Now, just as there was in Teddy Roosevelt’s time, there is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. “The market will take care of everything,” they tell us. If we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes -- especially for the wealthy -- our economy will grow stronger. Sure, they say, there will be winners and losers. But if the winners do really well, then jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle down to everybody else. And, they argue, even if prosperity doesn’t trickle down, well, that’s the price of liberty.
Now, it’s a simple theory. And we have to admit, it’s one that speaks to our rugged individualism and our healthy skepticism of too much government. That’s in America’s DNA. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. (Laughter.) But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. (Applause.) It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible postwar booms of the ‘50s and ‘60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade. (Applause.) I mean, understand, it’s not as if we haven’t tried this theory.
Obama clearly did not say that "cutting taxes and reducing regulations form an unworkable theory" -- he said that simply relying only on tax and regulation breaks for the wealthy, as conservatives like Walsh appear to be advocating, don't wrok.
