Obama: A Cost without Benfits

Common Sense

"President Obama abandoned a contentious new air pollution rule on Friday, buoying business interests that had lobbied heavily against it, angering environmentalists who called the move a betrayal and unnerving his own top environmental regulators...The E.P.A., following the recommendation of its scientific advisers, had proposed lowering the so-called ozone standard of 75 parts per billion, set at the end of the Bush administration, to a stricter standard of 60 to 70 parts per billion." NY Times 3 Sept 2011

Just as in the deficit negotiations, Obama points out the costs projected by business (always billions and lost jobs, ignoring the fact that if they are forced to spend billions, it is impossible to see how that can be done without creating jobs).

The cost completely ignored by business and its graceless sycophants is that we have a $2 trillion health care industry whose costs are passed on to consumers,and when those consumers get sick or die, there are real losses that are painful, and can drive even individuals with insurance into bankruptcy.

If Obama's house was on fire, he would not say, "We can not afford to put it out now; let's wait." and when pollution continues there are real costs that are tragic for the people affected. Those people have no lobbyists, so their voices do not seem to reach the White House, but the only reason for canceling a program is if the costs exceed the value of the benefits, and that is the argument that Obama did not make. He made the political judgment that big industries make large contributions, and voters rarely do.

This is hardly the first time that Obama has ignored working families. He accepted the parameter for the deficit talks that there would be $3 in spending cuts every $1 in tax increases. The spending cuts a necessary because he allowed the Bush tax cuts to continue. The spending cuts mean job losses; in August 2011, the private industry added 17,000 jobs and federal, state, and local governments laid off 17,000 workers. Nobody rushed to put help wanted ads in the paper. Layoffs are tax, particularly when they come when there are six people looking for every job being offered. A huge tax, but since Obama does not see the burden on working families as something he can work to political advantage, he does not address it. $3 in spending cuts is $3 of taxes to someone. Too bad Obama does not talk to those people.