OPINION:
The White House on Monday will entertain a summit on working families. This is not as positive as it sounds. President Obama is not out to help Mom and Pop find ways to make frazzled ends meet while taking care of their first newborn child. The president’s attention is devoted to a new kind of family.
Traditional families struggle to put food on the table. The Agriculture Department forecasts a 6.5 percent increase in the price of beef this year. The price of bacon is going up, and there’s a 6 percent jump in the price of eggs. The price of ground beef is spiking to the highest yet; it’s 76 percent more expensive than it was when Barack Obama became president.
Ranchers must pay more to feed their herd, thanks to the federal policy requiring every gallon of gasoline to be adulterated with a mixture of 10 percent corn. Mr. Obama is determined to raise that figure to 15 percent, which will divert even more prime farm land to the growing of subsidy crops, like ethanol, instead of food to feed people and cattle. Government regulators are doing their part to drive ranchers out of business.
Families that can afford meat soon may not afford to cook it. On Mr. Obama’s watch, residential electricity rates have risen 18 percent, according to Energy Department figures, but the financial shock of shutting down coal plants has yet to be felt. Once the new Environmental Protection Agency rules take full effect, the rules will add 20 percent to the electricity bills. So much for feeling the pain of working families.
Opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline and attempts to stifle the natural gas and oil boom born of fracking are intentionally keeping the sources of affordable energy much higher than they would otherwise be.
Health care prices are unnecessarily high, due to the disaster of Obamacare. Parents often can no longer see the family doctor who brought their first child into the world. Insurance policies are canceled for more expensive, administration-approved plans that cover abortions for women, pregnancy for men and birth control devices for all. Any family with a moral or financial objection will be hit in 2016 with a federal tax penalty of $2,085 — or more for large families with modest income. How family friendly is that?
The struggles of Mom and Dad are of little concern to an administration obsessed with promoting a different kind of family — Heather and her two mommies, Timmy and his three daddies. The president is committed to redefining marriage so that special treatment goes to the fringe families. He’ll even spend taxpayer money on sex-change operations for prisoners convicted of treason and see that Taliban terrorists are reunited with their jihadist families.
Snuffing out the traditional definition of family, where Mom and Dad provide nurture and support to children is the fundamental transformation of society Mr. Obama promised. The new working family will depend on the government and be expected to vote Democratic forever. For this White House, that’s all that matters.
Undermining the nation’s greatest source of strength is a fatal mistake. If the president really wants the economy to grow so that Mom and Dad can afford to cook a hamburger or serve bacon and eggs for breakfast, all he has to do is get out of the way and take big government with him. We won’t hold our breath.
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