At various points over the last few months I’ve often mocked our president for his apparent ability and willingness to pitch his tax cut as the solution to almost every conceivable problem the nation faces, or even doesn’t face.
Robust Growth? Tax cut. No Growth? Tax cut. Market downturn? Tax cut. Low Productivity? Tax cut. Invasion of Feral Elves? Tax cut.
But the president’s actual rhetoric is now outdistancing my mockery. Now he says the tax cut is the best solution to the ‘energy crisis.’
That, of course, would be the ‘energy crisis’ his administration has whipped up to bolster the case for increased oil drilling and weakened environmental protections.
But if you look at these latest, declining public approval numbers from the CNN/USA Today poll you can’t help wondering if the president’s numerous puffed up ‘crises’ are coming back to haunt him. (His numbers have fallen nine points since last month to 53%.)
According to the CNN poll, the number of Americans who believe the energy situation is “very serious” has gone from 31% to 58% just since March. And if you look through the rest of the numbers, the president’s dipping approval numbers seem tied to growing pessimism on the economy and energy fronts more generally.
Don’t get me wrong: Energy prices are high. And the economy is wobbly. But what precisely has changed in the country’s energy situation in the last two months which would justify a near-doubling of the number of Americans who think our plight is “very serious?” What beside the dramatic shift in the public debate — pushed largely by the White House — toward discussion of an energy crisis?
In it’s first three months alarmism has been the defining trait of this administration. And what we’re seeing may be some poetic justice. And another example that restoration regimes tend more often to be imprisoned by the mistakes of their predecessors than edified by them.
We’ll get back to that latter point soon.
