Economic Growth : What the People Want

Growth is the only evidence of life.

Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), Apologia pro Vita Sua


In the midterms, the People spoke. They want economic growth. The People let us know they are not dumb, numb, or oblivious to the obvious: lack of economic growth they are not feeling Over the last six years of the Obama presidency, they have taken home less money to support themselves and their family.

President Obama assures us he has added 10 million jobs, but 20 million have given up looking for employment, and they do not personally feel the so-called uptick of the economy.

The people know this is slowest growing recovery from seven recession since World War II. Previous economies have rebounded from recessions with annual growths of 4 % or more. Since World War II, the U.S. economy has had an annual growth of 3.3%.

Here are the annual growth rates during the Obama Presidency: 2009: -2.8%: 2010: 2.5%: 2011: 1.8%; 2012: 2.8%: 2013: 1.9%: 2014: 2.5% (projected). The average growth rate is 1.7%, 2.3% if one takes away 2009. Over the 2009 to 2014, period the average income of the middle class has dropped from $55,000 to $51,000.

Give the resounding 2014 midterm shellacking, it is important to ask: What do the people want?

The want economic growth. In the words of Daniel Henninger: “Low economic growth is the modern U.S. economy is a total, across-the-b0ard, too-to-bottom political loswer ("Why the Democrats Lose, “ WSJ, November 8, 2014).

During the six years of Obama’s first six years of tenure, we learned certain other things the People want.

• The want less Wall Street, less plutocracy, and more Main Street democracy.

• They want less national economic austerity, and more personal prosperity.

• They want less of the health reform shell game, with its attendant redistribution of benefits to the upper and lower classes and higher premiums, deductibles, and copayments to the middle class with loss of health plans and doctors.

• They want less national debt with its transfer to future generations.

• They want less talk about social justice with its accompanying higher taxes (over $1 billion in 2013) and its fictitious wars on women, minorities, and inequality and more talk about the rising economic tide with opportunities for all.

• They want less economic despair and more economic repair of health, tax, and entitlement systems.

• They want less part-time jobs and more full-time jobs with elimination of the $2000 per employee financial penalties for all workers who work more than 30 hours.

• They want less regulation with economic stagnation and more innovation with economic stimulation.

In the end game, which is elections and their aftermath, the Great American Middle want economic growth and opportunity for all, not what policy wonks and elites so glibly prescribe and describe. The Great Middle wants the economy liberated from political gridlock. Sometimes, when it comes to government, less is more. Let the People go.