Pres. Obama, There's Another Indiana

Here's an interesting take by columnist Cal Thomas. To read the entire article, click here.

The other Indiana

OPINION: Had President Obama met with Gov. Mitch Daniels while in the Hoosier State, he would have seen a different economic picture Cal Thomas

When President Obama visited Elkhart, Ind., on Monday to flog his economic stimulus plan (aka more government spending), he saw a struggling town in the midst of a relatively prosperous state. Had he taken the time to visit Indianapolis and met with Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, he would have seen a different picture.

Indiana has a $1.3 billion surplus and a “rainy day fund” made up of contributions that come from a unique concept these days: government spending less than it receives from taxpayers, without raiding its cash reserves.

Among several things that troubled me about President Obama’s appearance in Elkhart and his news conference that night was the absence of any call for individual initiative to help get us out of our economic funk. The president and the congressional majority party appear to believe that when one gets a job, he should hold that job all his life and retire with a good pension.

Furthermore, that person should never be expected to move (migrate) in the pursuit of better opportunities—and the federal government must address anything that interferes with that scenario.

Opportunities remain in Indiana, despite the difficulties in Elkhart, for those with the vision and initiative to seize them. According to the governor’s office, since January 2005, 647 businesses have committed to creating 80,043 jobs and to investing $18.8 billion in their Indiana operations. In an online search of the Indianapolis Star newspaper on Tuesday, I found links to 2,398 jobs in or within a 30-mile radius of Indianapolis. There are even help wanted postings in the Elkhart newspaper.

Have we become so indolent, so used to others doing for us, that we have lost the initiative so many of our forebears had, initiative that built and sustained this country through much harder times than this? I suspect many of them would have gladly traded their real hard times for what we have now, which is prosperity squared compared to apple selling, dust bowls, and the shanties in which many of them lived.