Believe it or not, the term “muddling through” comes from none other than ultra-Keynesian Paul Krugman, who kicked off today’s column by saying, “The Obama administration’s economic policy is already falling behind the curve, and there’s a real, growing danger that it will never catch up.”

It’s pretty clear that “muddling through a rescue” is about the kindest face that can possibly be put on the actions of an administration that has, since coming into power less than two months ago, overseen a drop of over 20% in the stock market an an increase in the unemployment rate (8.1%) to its highest level since December 1983.

Who’s Really Working for Failure Here?

For all the hullabaloo about Rush Limbaugh saying he wants President Obama to fail at the implementation of his far-left policies, Obama is proceeding as though he wants American businesses to fail — or, at very lest, as though taking advantage of the present opportunity to implement his far-left wealth-redistributing, government-growing, tax-hiking agenda is far more important to him than actually taking effective steps to abate and end this crisis. (Then again, perhaps he is simply too “overwhelmed by the economic meltdown,” as the UK Telegraph quotes “sources close to the White House” as saying, to think beyond his deeply-ingrained “expanding government is the answer to all problems, regardless of its proven failure every time it has been tried” ideology.

Over at The New Ledger, our own Francis Cianfrocca says:

The recently-announced budget would be radical and damaging to business confidence in the best of times. But these are the worst of times, and the budget is nothing short of disastrous. We’re being told to expect tax increases on high earners, business income and capital, increases in business regulation, a new energy tax on the whole economy (”cap and trade”), and the biggest expansion in government spending since World War II.

If you’re a businessperson, as I am, your reaction can only be to conclude that President Obama doesn’t like you. The Administration’s stated policies make it very uncertain and unattractive for businesses to try to expand and create new jobs, now and for years to come.

The damage that our young president has already caused to the economy is hard to overstate, because it has a very long tail. It’s going to take years to rebuild business confidence now — and in terms of economic growth, those will be lost years.