During the State of the Union address, President Obama said, “When what you’re doing doesn’t work for 50 years, it’s time to try something new.” In this case, Mr. Obama was referring to the Cuban embargo.
Cato Institute’s executive vice president, David Boaz, points out that there are many other programs where Mr. Obama’s sentence is also applicable:
50 years of a war on drugs that has created crime, corruption and overflowing prisons, with no lessening of drug use or abuse.
50 years of increases in education spending with no increase in test scores.
50 years of an interventionist foreign policy that has dragged the U.S. into costly and unnecessary conflicts.
50+ years of a War on Poverty that has cost the economy $16 billion and has ended neither poverty nor unemployment.
Regarding Obama’s proposal of $320 billion tax increase over 10 years, David Boaz continues, “The president wants more and better jobs. And yet he wants to raise taxes on the savings and investment that produce economic growth and better jobs. And he proposes a higher minimum wage, which would cost some low-skilled workers their jobs. Those proposals are not well thought out.”
Go here for more responses on YouTube from Cato scholars on the 2015 State of the Union speech.
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