01 Jul 2011 Obama’s Policies are Causing Moral and Economic Decline, by Deneen Borelli

Faced with the reality that his policies have failed to spur significant job growth, President Obama is blaming technology for high unemployment.

During a recent NBC News interview Obama said, “There are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers. You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM. You don’t go to a bank teller. Or you go to the airport and you’re using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate.”

ATMs provide convenience — they are hardly a drag on the economy. Yet, like targeting jet owners will allegedly greatly reduce our national debt, shunning ATMs is apparently a sure-fire solution to our unemployment woes.

While Obama demonizes airplanes and ATMs, it’s really his toxic policies such as his failed stimulus and his war on fossil fuels that are stifling economic growth. Those policies are also having an impact on our nation’s morality.

Obama’s energy agenda brazenly picks winners and losers. His winners — renewable energy interests pushing wind and solar — are propped up with our tax dollars, creating an unsustainable “green” economic bubble.

Approximately $90 billion of the $787 billion stimulus, which was supposed to keep unemployment at or below eight percent, went to the clean energy industry. Still, unemployment remains high.

The losers are the fossil fuel industries — coal, oil and natural gas — that provide about 85 percent of our nation’s energy needs. They also create jobs and tax revenue.

According to the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industries together generate more than $2 trillion annually for the American economy and pay approximately $85 million a day to the U.S. Treasury while creating 9.2 million jobs.

In appreciation, Obama and his liberal allies demonize them and push to tax them more.

Black Americans have been especially hard hit by the recession. With unemployment at 9.2 percent nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports black unemployment is at 16.2 percent — with 41 percent of black teens jobless.

After overwhelmingly supporting Obama in 2008, it’s disappointing that in addition to suffering from a disproportionately high unemployment rate, black Americans are suffering from higher energy and related consumer costs.

As more and more experienced adults lose their jobs, they are pushed into positions once dominated by young people. This fosters despondency among youth and creates idle time and minds that are the Devil’s playground.

Whimsical “flash mobs” of mass dancing and pranking in public places have inspired sinister “flash robs,” where gangs descend en masse to overwhelm security and pilfer store shelves.

These mobs — often populated by black youth — have been caught on camera causing substantial property damage and stealing thousands of dollars in merchandise — from clothing and electronics to simple food and beverages. Attacks occur at random times, sometimes in broad daylight and on busy streets. And they know no home, as “flash robs” have been reported in Chicago, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, St. Paul and Washington, D.C.

It’s one thing when the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton — seemingly always ready for the media spotlight — are not denouncing these acts of violence and thievery. It’s another when the Congressional Black Caucus, which has been critical of Obama on black unemployment, is not demanding that Obama end the war on fossil fuels as a means of lowering consumer costs, getting people back to work and putting an end to our economic and — by association — moral decline.

Without a significant economic turnaround, this summer may be a tragic one. Until the economy recovers, we can expect to see more crime, more violence and more misery.

Instead of pulling the plug on ATMs, Obama ought to pull the plug on EPA plans to regulate greenhouse gases and other economically harmful rules directed at utilities and fossil fuel exploration — removing uncertainty from the business environment.

It’s all in Obama’s hands.

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Deneen Borelli is a fellow with the Project 21 black leadership network. This commentary was previously published by the Daily Caller. Comments may be sent to [email protected].

Published by the National Center for Public Policy Research. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their author, and not necessarily those of Project 21, other Project 21 members, or the National Center for Public Policy Research, its board or staff.