James Pethokoukis nails Obama's Economic Speech

Read Pethokoukis's whole statement, but here is the most important gist:

Obama thinks climate change is gradually becoming a political negative. Obama's climate-change plan would make reducing carbon emissions the fundamental organizing principle of the American economy. But he mentioned it only once in his long speech on economic policy—and merely in passing at that. Can you imagine a Reagan speech in 1980 with only a single, brief mention of tax cuts? But you can't really blame Obama. Do people actually want to hear about why they should be paying even more for energy with gas at $4 a gallon? . . .

Plenty of liberal and conservative economists think corporate taxes make little sense. They hurt national competitiveness and reduce worker wages. Yet Obama views cutting taxes on employers—using controversial Exxon Mobil as the poster company for all of corporate America—just the same as cutting taxes for wealthy folks. He could easily pay for corporate tax cuts by using the proceeds from his carbon cap plan, but those trillions are already promised elsewhere in his plan. . . . .

I didn't hear anything about what government can do to lessen the tax or regulatory burden on investors or employers, only about how Uncle Sam can spend money on research and infrastructure investments that will supposedly create 5 million green jobs. Hey, if the government spends billions on anything, jobs will be created. That's no biggie. But you are only shifting jobs from elsewhere in the economy. New jobs are not the same as net new jobs.