By Fred Barnes
On June 17 the Obama administration proclaimed Recovery Summer.
This was done with considerable fanfare including the announcement that President Obama & Vice President Biden would tour Recovery Act sites ones funded by the $814 billion stimulus in full expectation the projects would contribute mightily to accelerated economic growth and job creation.
The nations capital endures recessions with less discomfort than anywhere else and thats truer than ever today.
At the time I was in Missouri reporting on the campaign for the states open Senate seat. As luck would have it the candidate I was traveling with Republican Roy Blunt met at various stops with corporate executives small businessmen bankers and entrepreneurs. They were talkative.
Some were Republicans some werent but they said roughly the same thing. Were not expanding our companies. Were not hiring. Bankers said they werent doing much lending but there werent many borrowers either.
One pessimistic businessman said hed like to move his company offshore.
Another said he wanted to hire but had backed off because his firm would exceed 50 employees and then be subject to the mandates and
requirements of the new health-care law.
Now that Recovery Summer has brought slower growth and meager hiring its clear who had a better sense of the countrys economic condition. It wasnt cheery officials in Washington whose prediction of a summertime boom was based on economic numbers from the spring. It was folks far from Washington and immersed in the real economy who saw economic stagnation ahead and were adjusting their business decisions accordingly.
Their view of the economy was no secret. You just had to get out of Washington to hear it. Had administration experts done thatif they did it escaped attentiontheyd have spared themselves the embarrassment of a Recovery Summer without a recovery.
Washington and the rest of America have grown apart. And the gap has widened as those in Washington and outside have experienced the economic downturn the Democratic agenda and the Obama presidency quite differently.
The disconnect isnt new. Only its breadth is. And so is the striking contrast between how the powers that be in Washington see the world and the countrys future and how much of the rest of America does.
Washington has often been unpopular accused of being out of touch and parasitic. One reason is that Washington endures recessions with less discomfort than anywhere else and thats truer than ever today. The federal government has added thousands of jobs since Mr. Obama became president making an affluent town even wealthier. The unemployment rate for the metropolitan Washington area was an acceptable 6.3 in July compared to 9.5 nationally. Though the housing market inside the Beltway has cooled prices have scarcely dipped at all.
But the divide isnt simply about economics or lifestyle. Its also ideological. With Mr. Obama in the White House and Democrats in charge of Congress Washington is governed by liberals. They havent been this dominant since the Great Society days of the mid-60s. And theyve had their way in Washington for the past 20 months.
But the country almost from the moment Mr. Obama took office has taken a sharp lurch to the right. This has produced a political paradox a liberal capital in a conservative nation. Washington refuses to come to grips with this unexpected phenomenon. Why? Because the liberals who run the city believe the legislation theyve passed will sooner or later be acclaimed by a grateful public. If they could theyd pass more.
Since Mr. Obama and Democrats began to lose favor a year ago theyve lived in a state of surprise. They had assumed Americans wanted bigger government. Theyre surprised so many dont. Now theyre open to explanations that absolve their agenda.
Washington already has its preferred excuse for the widespread disaffection. The economy and the economy alone has caused Mr. Obamas job approval and Democrats electability to sink. If you ask why the recovery continues to be anemic the answer is theyve discovered President Bush left things in worse shape than they had imagined.
Outside Washington theres a different narrative in which policies matter. The ineffective stimulus trillion-dollar deficits soaring national debt the health-care bill bailoutsthese have upset millions of Americans especially independent voters. After voting for Democrats and Mr. Obama independents have switched sides in droves to elect Republican governors in Virginia and New Jersey and Republican Scott Brown to the Senate from Massachusetts.
Still another reflection of the gap between Washington and the country is the dispute over whether Mr. Obama is antibusiness. Administration officials insist hes not and seem puzzled by those who disagree. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel argues that business leaders should appreciate the presidents decision not to nationalize banks or push for a single payer health-care system and to steer stimulus money their way.
To the business community all that is irrelevant. Instead companies are calculating how much health-care obligations imposed by Washington will add to their cost of doing business and are anxious about tax hikes and a tidal wave of new regulations. As best I can tell the Obama administration and most of Washington are oblivious to what has become a high priority for businesses around the country: holding down labor costs by hiring as few employees as possible.
Republicans though out of power face a gap of their own. GOP leaders in Washington along with pollsters and consultants are leery of revealing specifically what theyd do if they capture the House Senate or both in the midterm election on Nov. 2. They fear giving Democrats a target. But outside Washington Republican candidates arent nearly as reticent. Theyve concluded voters are eager to hear details and have embraced the comprehensive Road Map for economic policy and entitlement reform drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
In Washington when policies or popularity become problems the call usually goes out for the president to head for the hinterlands and defend himself and his agenda. But in this election year weve heard few pleas for Mr. Obama to hit the road. On this theres no gap between Washington and the country.
Mr. Barnes is executive editor of the Weekly Standard and a commentator on Fox News Channel.
