A speech in Parma

No, not Italy -- Parma, Ohio. President Obama spoke there Wednesday and delivered remarks on the economy that are, well, simply bewildering:

I ran for President because for much of the last decade, a very specific governing philosophy had reigned about how America should work: Cut taxes, especially for millionaires and billionaires. Cut regulations for special interests. Cut trade deals even if they didn’t benefit our workers. Cut back on investments in our people and in our future -– in education and clean energy, in research and technology. The idea was that if we just had blind faith in the market, if we let corporations play by their own rules, if we left everyone else to fend for themselves that America would grow and America would prosper.

While some of Obama's statements are just left-wing boilerplate -- tax cuts for the rich, etc. -- much of what he says is flat-out wrong. Cuts in education? The Department of Education's budget rose dramatically under President Bush. Cuts in R&D? Energy R&D spending remained constant in inflation-adjusted terms while health care R&D shot up. Blind faith in the market and deregulation? The budget and staff for the Securities and Exchange Commission were increased while Sarbanes-Oxley was a massive new regulatory burden.

Obama's then contrasts the supposed militant free-marketeering of the Bush administration with his own beliefs:

...I ran because I had a different idea about how America was built. (Applause.) It was an idea rooted in my own family’s story.

You see, Michelle and I are where we are today because even though our families didn’t have much, they worked tirelessly -– without complaint -– so that we might have a better life. My grandfather marched off to Europe in World War II, while my grandmother worked in factories on the home front. I had a single mom who put herself through school, and would wake before dawn to make sure I got a decent education. Michelle can still remember her father heading out to his job as a city worker long after multiple sclerosis had made it impossible for him to walk without crutches. He always got to work; he just had to get up a little earlier.

Yes, our families believed in the American values of self-reliance and individual responsibility, and they instilled those values in their children. But they also believed in a country that rewards responsibility; a country that rewards hard work; a country built on the promise of opportunity and upward mobility.

They believed in an America that gave my grandfather the chance to go to college because of the GI Bill; an America that gave my grandparents the chance to buy a home because of the Federal Housing Authority; an America that gave their children and grandchildren the chance to fulfill our dreams thanks to college loans and college scholarships.

The narrative here is obvious: every good thing that happened to President Obama and his wife's families have their root in a government program. Government is the root of prosperity. Now, I happen to believe that federal spending on higher education and the FHA has largely been counter-productive, but it is understandable that Obama believes in the central role of government in fostering prosperity.

One can understand why it is such a jolt to then come across this:

...See, I’ve never believed that government has all the answers to our problems. I’ve never believed that government’s role is to create jobs or prosperity. I believe it’s the drive and the ingenuity of our entrepreneurs, our small businesses; the skill and dedication of our workers -- (applause) -- that’s made us the wealthiest nation on Earth. (Applause.) I believe it’s the private sector that must be the main engine for our recovery.

I believe government should be lean; government should be efficient. I believe government should leave people free to make the choices they think are best for themselves and their families, so long as those choices don’t hurt others. (Applause.)

Wait, what? If this were a television show this would be the part where you would hear the sound of tape being rewound so we could hear that again. The final sentence there is just stunning, it's basically an utterance of the libertarian credo. It's a statement that places Obama to the right of 90 percent of Republican members of Congress.

Unfortunately he then transitions into pure nonsense:

But in the words of the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, I also believe that government should do for the people what they cannot do better for themselves. (Applause.) And that means making the long-term investments in this country’s future that individuals and corporations can't make on their own: investments in education and clean energy, in basic research and technology and infrastructure.

What a dim, pessimistic and nonsensical view of people. Does he really think that the country's citizens are so helpless without its government? Individuals and corporations can't invest in education? This from a guy that sends his daughters to private school, attended a prep school himself, and obtained his higher education at Columbia and Harvard. It's self-evidently ridiculous. And clean energy, really? There are many companies involved in such sectors (the company I work for invests in solar energy) and venture capital funds are prowling Silicon Valley and other research hotbeds in search of the next big thing.

Two-thirds of R&D spending in scientific and technical fields in the OECD is conducted by the private sector (although this is admittedly different than pure basic research) and there are plenty of areas where the private sector is active in infrastructure. There is no reason why the private sector can't own and operate infrastructure elements such as rail networks, airports and seaports among others. This isn't libertarian utopian thinking, let us recall that private enterprise built nearly all of the country's railroads, much of the New York City subways system was privately built and operated until 1940, and the private origins of the term "toll road". While this should not be confused for an argument that all infrastructure, or even a majority, should be privately-built and operated, Obama's blanket statement is simply inaccurate.

So much of what this president seems to believe simply is not rooted in objective fact.

Related: Commentary on the speech from Sam Staley and Jonah Goldberg.