Townhall
Recycling Old and Failed Ideas
by Cal Thomas
Feb 14, 2013 

President Obama's approach to so-called "climate change" appears to include recycling old ideas. 

In his State of the Union address, the president recycled the idea of spending more on education, though we are still getting unsatisfactory results. A fact he inadvertently acknowledged by saying we're not keeping up with other countries in science and math. He maintained there are tens of thousands of jobs available but companies can't fill them because public schools aren't teaching students what they need to know. We spend huge sums on education already, so money and achievement must not be related. 

Infrastructure? We've heard that before, too. Why is nothing ever fixed with all the money that's been spent the last four years? Because it's about maintaining union jobs, not creating new jobs that produce products and services and grow small businesses. 

The president mentioned the coming sequester, but Douglas Elmendorf, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, told the Senate's Committee on the Budget, that he can't score the proposal to replace the sequester because he hasn't yet seen "a specific proposal." The sequester was the president's idea, though he now suggests it came from Congress. The House has proposed targeted spending cuts that protect defense. Those proposals have gone nowhere in the Senate. 

The president spoke of "...the basic bargain that built this country -- the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead." Yes, and if you do you will be taxed at ever increasing rates, labeled rich and powerful and accused of not doing your fair share. 

What would be fair is for government to stop spending more than it takes in…