Economic Growth Has Stagnated Under Obama

This week the Democrats officially coronate the battered Hillary Clinton as the torch bearer for the party. She has slouched to the finish line. She is tired and the country is tired of her. Sorry, Democrats, no do-overs. You’re stuck with her.

But it isn’t just Hillary who is out of touch and in tragic decline, it’s the whole Democratic Party. My friends at the American Enterprise Institute reported last week that the Democratic platform is silent on “economic growth.” Maybe that is because across the country during the past eight years of Obamanomics economic growth has been silent.

This is an exaggeration, of course, but not much of one. We have had 2 percent growth under President Obama, but that’s an economy treading water. It’s sister-kissing growth that, yes, has thankfully kept us out of recession, but doesn’t lead to much if any rise in living standards.

Just as Mr. Obama refuses to utter the words “Islamic terrorism,” now the whole party can’t seem to bring itself to endorse “economic growth.” For the left growth isn’t really the goal. They want redistribution of wealth.

The language of a party platform doesn’t matter much, if at all. But if you’re not for growth, you probably aren’t going to produce it, just as If you’re not even trying to get in shape, it’s a good bet you’re not going to shed those extra 16 pounds.

Amazingly, the last great growth hawk of the Democratic Party of modern times, John F. Kennedy, ran against Republican Richard Nixon in 1960 on the issue of the “growth deficit.” The economy in the 1950s was fairly prosperous and much more so than over the last eight years. But JFK said we can “do bettah” and convinced Americans we could see much faster wage gains with greater opportunities.