Gutting It Out

“Obama Blames Europe & Earthquakes For His Failed Policies,” Jim Hoft writes at Gateway Pundit, quipping, “Evidently, George W. Bush was not available,” before linking to the London Daily Mail, which notes:

The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index are both headed for a fifth straight week of losses – the longest losing streak for the Dow since July 2004.

The slump follows jobs data published on Friday showing employers added only 54,000 new workers in May, the fewest in eight months and well below what analysts were expecting.

The news comes as President Barack Obama today blamed high gasoline prices, the Japanese earthquake and Europe’s financial crisis for economic ‘headwinds’ at home.

As inspiration for a broader recovery, he’s citing the American auto industry’s resurgence.

‘We’re a people who don’t give up, who do big things, who shape our own destiny,’ the president said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday.

Like his words to Chrysler workers, Obama’s address did not mention the bleak unemployment numbers announced Friday for the month of May. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the economy last month created only a net 54,000 jobs and unemployment inched up to 9.1 percent.

‘We’re facing some tough headwinds,’ Obama said.

‘Lately, it’s high gas prices, the earthquake in Japan and unease about the European fiscal situation. That will happen from time to time.’

Yes, but it’s rare for prospective American presidents to publicly root for one of those items before taking office. And unease about a cradle-to-grave welfare state on mega-steroids and its incumbent fiscal woes? How could that have any bearing on America’s current woes?

At Townhall, Paul Jacob adds:

Savannah Guthrie is awfully cute. Smart, too. Not as cute or smart as my missus (by a long shot — don’t try to cause trouble), but still.

Last Thursday, on Guthrie’s second-to-last day on MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown (she’s moving to NBC’s Today Show), she listened to Jim Tankersley of National Journal blame the frighteningly anemic “job numbers” on high gas prices and the spate of tornadoes “playing together to slow down manufacturing activity, slow down hiring.” Then, she asked the question that I’ve wanted to ask:

Isn’t the problem here, Jim, that there’s really no cushion? The Fed apparently has done what it’s prepared to do to spur on the economy. There’s no policy response. Congress isn’t going to spend any more money to create jobs. So whatever happens, Americans are in a position of just gutting it out.

Yes, after the Fed has showered its printing presses on banks and other businesses to the tune of many trillions, and years after the stimulus was supposed to prevent us from ever reaching 9 percent unemployment, that very 9 percent level was crossed for the second time on this double-dip ride, and we’re now left to gut it out by ourselves. Alone, if you think in terms of government; together, if you think in terms of shared condition.

But look on the bright side. If Savannah is correct, the folks in Washington might stop helping us so much.

What we’re talking about here — “gutting it out” — could, alternatively, be called “freedom.” Left to our own devices, without government bailouts and jobs programs and subsidies and assorted fine-tuning, we Americans can still dream and build and innovate and grow, getting better each year at producing the goods and services that we each need to live our lives and pursue our own happiness.

Can’t we?

Nope. At least not until over-regulation and regulatory uncertainty is greatly rolled back as well.