IT’S OBAMA’S CRONY SECTOR THAT’S DOING FINE

When President Barack Hussein Obama said "the private sector is doing fine," perhaps it’s because he thinks the private sector consists chiefly of the crony capitalist fat cats he sees at his megabuck fundraisers. 

People who shell out $40,000 per plate — as did those who attended the dinner at actor George Clooney’s home in Los Angeles last month — obviously are doing "fine."

Let’s call them the crony sector, not the private sector.

"In the first 12 days of June, Obama has attended 21 fundraising events," ABC News reported Tuesday (6/12).  "He has now attended 163 re-election fundraisers for his campaign and the Democrat Party."  That’s more than the last four presidents put together (three of whom served two full terms).

His busy schedule kept him from campaigning for Democrats in the Wisconsin recall election, the president told ABC’s affiliate in Green Bay Monday.

"Those ‘responsibilities’ in the days before and after the vote included a public schedule dominated by fundraisers," including six in Minneapolis and Chicago three days before the election, ABC said.

Peggy Noonan, a former fan, noted Mr. Obama spends most of his time running for president.  "Why?" she asked.  "He could be president now if he wanted to be."

Or perhaps Mr. Obama was thinking of the crony capitalists to whom he has given billions of taxpayer dollars for "green" energy projects.  They’re doing fine too, even though most of their projects have failed.  BrightSource Energy, for instance, got a $1.4 billion loan from the Department of Energy after hiring a former chief of staff for Vice President Joe Biden to lobby for them.

But the vast majority in the private sector are not celebrities, or crony capitalists.  They are not doing "fine."

*The net worth of the median household in the U.S. fell nearly $39,000 between 2007 and 2010, chiefly because of the decline in home values, said a study by the Federal Reserve released Tuesday.

*Median household income has fallen back to 1996 levels, the Census Bureau reported last September.

*The U.S. has seen the longest period of sustained high unemployment since the Great Depression, the Congressional Budget Office said in February.  The unemployment rate has risen since then.  It’ll stay above 8 percent for at least another year, CBO says.

If those who haven’t looked for work in the last month, or those who work part time but want to work full time are counted, the unemployment rate would be 15 percent, CBO said.

Half of last year’s college graduates are unemployed or underemployed.  Fewer than 30 percent of teenagers can find summer jobs.

Perhaps it’s too much to expect the former community organizer to know what’s really going on.  As one of those looking for work acidly put it: "Obama’s spent more time in a madrassa than he has in the private sector."

"Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government, oftentimes cuts initiated by governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government," Mr. Obama said.

The facts say otherwise.  Government workers receive about 16 percent more in pay and benefits than do workers in the private sector, the CBO said in January.

The unemployment rate for government workers in May was 4.2 percent — less than half the rate of the private sector.  State tax revenues rose 4.1 percent in the first three months of this year, more than twice as much as the overall economy grew that quarter.

So when government workers have been laid off, it’s rarely been due to a lack of funds.  Most layoffs have occurred because the leaders of public employee unions chose them over trimming exorbitant benefit packages.

Many government workers — though fewer than we have — do valuable work.  But all are consumers of wealth.  Adding to their numbers makes our fiscal problems worse.

Mr. Obama loves to redistribute wealth, but he hasn’t a clue how wealth is created, or who creates it.  "He’s defining what it means to be detached and out of touch with the American people," Mitt Romney said.  Swing voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania agree, said Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg and political consultant James Carville.

"When a guy building a California vacation mansion with a car elevator for his wife’s two Cadillacs calls you ‘out of touch’ – and no one laughs – you know you are in trouble." said Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.