Obama’s Regulations Hurt the People He Promised to Help

Of course campaign promises can’t be trusted – but who would guess that a candidate would actually do the opposite and hurt the people he promised to help?

Yet that’s exactly the effect that Obama has had on the working and middle class. Experts say Obama’s aggressive regulatory agenda has left his campaign promise of “a more robust Main Street” in shambles.

“The man really believes in regulating the private sector as opposed to structural remedies, and those regulations have hurt Main Street,” said Peter George Morici Jr., professor at the University of Maryland’s R.H. Smith School of Business.

The President was optimistic in his last press release of 2014, claiming “more jobs, more people insured, a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry, booming energy.” Numbers can look good on the surface, but economists still have “real concerns about the underlying strength of the economy.”

Here are just a few examples:

• Banking regulations are so complex that small banks sell out to bigger banks, leaving fewer options for ordinary people to buy homes or build.
• College students are graduating with more debt and fewer job prospects, resulting in an 11% rate for delinquency or default on student loans.
• Many Americans have left the job market, artificially lowering the unemployment rate while there are fewer people in the workforce.
• And beneath all that, “a large segment of America’s Main Street is becoming increasingly reliant on government help to make ends meet.”

The Washington Times reports, “the welfare dependency rate ‘peaked’ under Obama’s watch in 2010 when 5.3 percent of the total population was receiving half of its total income in a one-year period from the government.” That number has only “declined slightly since,” according to an annual federal report. The number of people on any kind of federal assistance has gone up 6% since Obama took office – due in part to the introduction of health subsidies.

“For those on Main Street, government subsidies have become an essential bridge to survival,” says Jeffrey Scott Shapiro. He then asks whether “Obama can change that dynamic in the final two years of his presidency.”

A better question – does he even want to?

This administration seems very invested in making the American citizen dependent on government. They promise to take care of our every need and tell us that they know what’s best.

Yet this narrative is completely antithetical to the virtues our nation was founded on. Hard work and the right to decide for ourselves have been hallmarks of the American culture for centuries. They are the reason why so many have flocked to this country over the years, seeking their own opportunities.

Now the big government crowd, led by our president, are undermining what makes our country great from the inside-out. We simply cannot allow this. We refuse to accept the lie that more government can solve the problems it created. It’s up to the citizens to think on our own and do the hard work to restore our country.