The sad truth spoken by Sen. Ted Cruz.
The sad truth of the Obama economy is that those who have been hurt the most are the most vulnerable: young people, Hispanics, African-Americans, single moms. Under President Obama, Hispanic unemployment climbed to nearly 10%; African-American unemployment to nearly 14%; and youth (age 16-19) unemployment to over 25%. Notably, the rich do just fine with big government. Indeed, income inequality has increased under President Obama. From June 2009 through 2011, the average income of the top 1% grew in real terms by 11.2%; the bottom 99% saw their incomes shrink by 0.4%. When you hammer small businesses with more and more taxes and regulations, the people who are hurt – those who are laid off, or whose hours are forcibly reduced to 29 hours a week – are those just beginning to climb the economic ladder.
The American free-market system has been the greatest engine for prosperity and opportunity that the world has ever seen. And I believe Republicans should have two words tattooed on our hands: growth and opportunity. Every policy we advocate should focus directly on improving those two priorities. For economic growth, we know what works: low taxes, less regulation, sound money and free trade. Those are the four pillars of sustainable, strong economic growth. We’ve seen this formula work – in the Roaring ‘20s, the Go-Go ‘60s, the 1980s and ‘90s. Every major recession relates to getting policy wrong on one or more of these pillars.
Our era’s malaise ties into this: tax increases; tremendous new regulations from Obamacare and other agencies; a dollar that soars one year and plummets the next. These are all factors that reduce investment returns, distort decision-making, or otherwise reduce the nation’s capacity for robust growth. Restoring economic growth should be every elected official’s top priority, and it should be a bipartisan objective. Democrats and Republicans should be able to work together on tax reform and regulatory reform to restore growth, to make it easier for small businesses to get started and grow, and to maximize the opportunity everyone has to achieve the American Dream.
