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.
At the time, I was in Missouri, reporting on the campaign for the state's open Senate seat. As luck would have it, the candidate I was traveling with, Republican Roy Blunt, met at various stops with corporate executives, small businessmen, bankers and entrepreneurs. They were talkative.
Some were Republicans, some weren't, but they said roughly the same thing. We're not expanding our companies. We're not hiring. Bankers said they weren't doing much lending, but there weren't many borrowers either. One pessimistic businessman said he'd like to move his company offshore. Another said he wanted to hire but had backed off because his firm would exceed 50 employees and then be subject to the mandates and requirements of the new health-care law.
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.
At the time, I was in Missouri, reporting on the campaign for the state's open Senate seat. As luck would have it, the candidate I was traveling with, Republican Roy Blunt, met at various stops with corporate executives, small businessmen, bankers and entrepreneurs. They were talkative.
Some were Republicans, some weren't, but they said roughly the same thing. We're not expanding our companies. We're not hiring. Bankers said they weren't doing much lending, but there weren't many borrowers either. One pessimistic businessman said he'd like to move his company offshore. Another said he wanted to hire but had backed off because his firm would exceed 50 employees and then be subject to the mandates and requirements of the new health-care law.
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.
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