Where Are We Going? and How Did We Get Into This Hand Basket?

Rep. Joe Wilson Was Right: Obama Has Deceived Us

By HENRY I. MILLER
Posted 06/08/2012 05:50 PM ET

He was correct. Prescient even. But one politician's invective directed at President Obama early in his administration seems to have been forgotten.

On Sept. 9, 2009, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., received widespread attention when he interrupted a speech by the president to a joint session of Congress by shouting, "You lie!" The incident resulted in a formal rebuke, essentially along party lines, by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.

Wilson may have been indecorous, but he was right. And the president has continued to deceive. As the economy has failed to rebound, the president has been desperately blaming everyone but himself — George W. Bush, European advocates of fiscal austerity, and especially Republicans in the U.S. Congress.

He fails to mention that for the first two years of his administration, his party's majority in the House and filibuster-proof majority in the Senate gave him a blank check for huge "stimulus" programs and for his socialist agenda.

Supremely arrogant and uncollegial, the president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid routinely rolled the GOP. (Recall Pelosi's extraordinary arrogance when queried about the proposed ObamaCare legislation: "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.")

Shortly after he was elected president, Obama promised substantial budget cuts.

He said officials would "go through our federal budget — page by page, line by line — eliminating those programs we don't need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible, cost-effective way."

We haven't gotten that. Government regulation is one of the nation's few growth industries, and the impacts of the Obama administration's policies have been disastrous to some of the nation's most innovative and productive industries, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices and oil and natural gas exploration.

Whatever they might say, whomever they wish to blame, Obama and his party now own the woes of the economy — and the misery of so many Americans.

Does anyone believe the remonstrations of the president and his surrogates that they are not really responsible for the enormous deficits incurred over the past three years?

Following recessions, especially one as deep and prolonged as our recent one, the economy usually comes roaring back, but in spite of Obama's claims to the contrary, his policies have prevented that. A recovering economy can only create private sector jobs if it engenders confidence and encourages innovation and the creation of wealth.

Obama's appointments, policies and decisions often have done exactly the opposite. Once again, instead of owning up to his decisions, the president denies responsibility.

Obama's attempts to increase taxes on "the wealthy," for example, discourage businesses from expanding and consumers from spending.

Many taxpayers already feel that taxes are extortionate and, fearing even higher levies, have withheld their spending, thereby reducing demand for goods and services.

Only recently has Obama even acknowledged that taxes on the wealthy are more about "fairness" than actually improving the nation's finances.

Moreover, there have been recent "hidden" tax increases such as burgeoning "user fees" paid by industry — which now encompass drugs, biologics, medical devices and food—just to get regulators to do their job, and a potentially catastrophic 2.3% excise tax on medical devices. (The excise tax is particularly pernicious because it is exacted not on profits but on revenues. Thus, the very existence of start-up entities that are not yet realizing profits or companies that work on very thin margins could be jeopardized by such taxes.)

At least part of these taxes inevitably will be passed along as higher prices to consumers, who then will have less disposable income. (This scenario is one of many that give the lie to Obama's promise not to increase taxes on individuals who make less than $200,000 a year.)

The president has repeatedly promised regulatory reform, but instead we have seen more uncertainty and the imposition of greater burdens on industry, including on some of the nation's most productive and competitive sectors.

His administration's policies — not the legacy of George W. Bush or the actions of the Republican-controlled House — have made it increasingly less likely that The Next Big Thing in high-tech will come from a U.S. company.

As the president revs up his campaign by claiming his policies have put us on the road to economic recovery, the facts tell a different story. GDP growth over the past five quarters has been a dismal 1.7%, and the U.S. jobless rate is 8.2%, with under-employment around 18%.

The 2012 Global Competitiveness Report from the World Economic Forum is ominous: "The United States continues the decline that began three years ago, falling one more position to 5th place." The report highlights eroding transparency in government, wasteful spending, burdensome regulation and waning trust in the integrity of the public sector.

In spite of all of this, Obama insists we are on the right track, that he has been a good steward of our economy, and that his policies are not the cause of the nation's miasma.

The appropriate reaction would be for the House to offer Joe Wilson an apology. To coin a phrase, we desperately need hope and change.

• Miller, a physician and molecular biologist, is the Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific Philosophy and Public Policy at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He was an official at the FDA from 1979 to 1994.