Jobs Through Growth Act: Aspiration Replaces Envy

President Obama gave a speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, the other day, allegedly about fairness for the middle class. His actual argument, however, reveals another message entirely. It boils down to the notion that America isn’t fair because successful people like him get to keep too much of what they earn.

That’s not a message of fairness. It’s a sermon of envy.

It’s also a classic case of misdirection. The middle class has suffered in recent years, but the 315,000 people who gave up on finding a job last month can’t be blamed on unfairness. That heartbreaking event resulted directly from the policies President Obama champions day after day.

The 2009 stimulus package that he and Joe Biden​ said would jump-start our economy … didn’t. And if the stimulus did work, why is the President still talking about Social Security/payroll tax reductions and prolonging unemployment benefits?

Or take the 4 million jobs Nancy Pelosi​ promised would be created by the health care takeover. That didn’t happen either.

What did happen? Ask the small businesses. The Obama administration has cost our economy billions of dollars by imposing one regulation after another, even as small-business owners in a recent Gallup survey named government regulations as their biggest problem.

The Osawatomie narrative says the middle class can’t make it unless the federal government targets the wealthy, suffocates small business, and puts our children deeper into debt. I just don’t agree.

Americans are built for aspiration, not envy. More than any other people in history, we are blessed with opportunities to pursue happiness, to have a dream and chase it down. The problems arise when Washington stops encouraging free and open competition, and starts trying to dictate outcomes.

While President Obama seems more concerned with his own job than anyone else’s, conservatives in the House of Representatives are advancing some bold ideas that can have a real, positive impact on our economy.

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[Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is the Chairman of the Republican Study Committee]