Fred Barnes writes in today’s Wall Street Journal:
On June 17, the Obama administration proclaimed “Recovery Summer.” This was done with considerable fanfare, including the announcement that President Obama and Vice President Biden would tour Recovery Act sites—ones funded by the $814 billion “stimulus”—in full expectation the projects would contribute mightily to accelerated economic growth and job creation….
Now that Recovery Summer has brought slower growth and meager hiring, it’s clear who had a better sense of the country’s economic condition. It wasn’t cheery officials in Washington whose prediction of a summertime boom was based on economic numbers from the spring. It was folks far from Washington and immersed in the real economy who saw economic stagnation ahead and were adjusting their business decisions accordingly.
Their view of the economy was no secret. You just had to get out of Washington to hear it. Had administration experts done that—if they did, it escaped attention—they’d have spared themselves the embarrassment of a Recovery Summer without a recovery.
Now that Recovery Summer has brought slower growth and meager hiring, it’s clear who had a better sense of the country’s economic condition. It wasn’t cheery officials in Washington whose prediction of a summertime boom was based on economic numbers from the spring. It was folks far from Washington and immersed in the real economy who saw economic stagnation ahead and were adjusting their business decisions accordingly.
Their view of the economy was no secret. You just had to get out of Washington to hear it. Had administration experts done that—if they did, it escaped attention—they’d have spared themselves the embarrassment of a Recovery Summer without a recovery.
Read it here.
