Quote:Nancy Pelosi once pontificated that unemployment benefits “create jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name.” This mind-numbing statement embodied the mindset of Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats over the last eight years. And it illustrates one of the challenges President Donald Trump faces.

Democrats and big-government Republicans can’t possibly believe that redistributing wealth and regulating market forces are the keys to economic freedom and prosperity. More likely, they know that doing so gives them the power to manipulate the very citizens they represent by making them dependent on costly government planning and social programs.

And so, as a result of Obama’s concerted efforts to gum up the works, politicians prospered, government grew bigger, and a stagnant American economy became ever more bogged down by overregulation and job-killing government mandates.

Clearly, this approach failed to create jobs, inspire innovation and grow the economy. Obama liked to talk about shovel-ready jobs, but those could be found only in the government sector, where employees enjoy salaries pre-paid by everyone else.