SAM FLETCHER
Senior Writer
US President Barack Obama is a lot like my mama. Mother, bless her, had a good heart, but if she ever did anything for me and my brothers-advance us money, loan us her car, give us birth-we'd hear about it forever. "Look at all I've done for you," she'd sob, "and this is the thanks I get." Although she loved us, the implication was clearly that my brothers and I were not the sons she deserved and likely never would be.
So Obama's Feb. 7 speech to the US Chamber of Commerce generated a déjà vu feeling of a visit with Mom when he essentially told business executives: Look at all the tax breaks the government has given you, and this is the thanks I get. You sit there on your fat assets of $2 trillion and won't build new plants or hire more workers just because the economy is still uncertain.
Guess they're not the business leaders the president feels he deserves, either. Apparently Obama figures if they would just hire workers they don't need and pay salaries they can't afford, eventually there will be more demand for the surplus products they would turn out. That's the same reasoning that is pushing auto manufacturers to build fleets of vehicles powered by electricity or natural gas when there is yet no network of retail refueling outlets for them. It's also the reason for government loans and subsidies that triggered a rash of construction of ethanol distillation plants, many of which independent refiner Valero Energy Corp. has since bought for pennies on the dollar from the financially strapped original owners. Those underfunded projects failed as increased demand pushed the cost of corn to new highs, diminished food supplies, and set the stage for riots in North Africa against despots who had held power for decades. Just proves business can be risky even when the government favors one industry over another and also can have unforeseen effects.
That's another way Obama is like Mom-she didn't know a thing about economics either. Unlike Obama, however, Mother was founder and chief executive of her own small business-a nursery for preschoolers-and knew what it meant to meet payrolls, invest in equipment, comply with government regulations, and cope with insurance, workman compensation claims, and other issues while maintaining a strict budget so outlays didn't exceed income.
Does Obama get it?
Obama told chamber members, "I understand the challenges you face. I understand that you're under incredible pressure to cut costs and keep your margins up. I understand the significance of your obligations to your shareholders. I get it."
But he really doesn't. That was plain in his earlier State of the Union address when he said, "I'm asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don't know if you've noticed, but they're doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday's energy, let's invest in tomorrow's."
Maybe a behemoth like ExxonMobil Corp. can survive anything but a meteor strike like the one that killed the dinosaurs. But there are a lot of smaller producers and service companies out there it wouldn't take much to drive under. What's more those oil industry tax breaks and "subsidies" Obama sneers at weren't bestowed out of the goodness of the federal government's heart. There were economic and energy security reasons for those so-called loopholes that were as important to the government as to the companies.
But if Obama wants to turn his back on "yesterday's energy" and "invest"-which will deepen the deficit just as much as spending-in tomorrow, then where will the energy come from to power the US economy today? That's something he should consider as the oil and gas wells necessary to hold down energy prices in 2012 when he seeks reelection are not being drilled today due to his ban in the Gulf of Mexico.
Mama warned there would be days like that.
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