Governor Mitt Romney walks through his plan to encourage businesses to start hiring in his OpEd in the Boston Globe, and he isn’t talking about a new government program. As a businessman, he understands that cutting taxes and spending, promoting exports and a long term energy strategy that reduces our dependence on foreign energy is the best way to stimulate job growth. Today, unemployment in Missouri is holding steady at 9.2%. The government stimulus plans have created a huge debt and actually reduced economic growth by undermining confidence.

With all due respect, the Wall Street Journal OpEd “The end of American Optimism” – which accurately sums up the condition of the economy – wrongly tends to blame mysterious “structural” issues rather than the government for our current problems, just as Jimmy Carter blamed a “national malaise” in 1979 for the failures of his Administration.

What the government needs to do is not all that difficult to figure out. As a beginning: Stop spending so much money. Don’t raise taxes. Repeal the health care bill, and declare a moratorium on new regulations that impose greater burdens and uncertainty on the economy.

To be sure, America faces long term challenges in areas like education. But right now, the problem is the federal government. Once the private sector becomes convinced that the government will actually stop attacking the free market, the private sector will once again begin hiring.

When Ronald Reagan was campaigning for President, he said the following. “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job. And a recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his job.” And so it proved.

Businessman and Las Vegas developer, Steve Wynn expresses the sentiments of American business owners of all sizes in this interview with CNBC. He will be expanding his operations overseas because he believes that China is more stable and certain than US considering the job killing the policies coming out of Washington.

You can sense the frustration in his voice.

While the health care bill was being considered by Congress, voters had serious concerns over the affordability of the legislation and its impact on Medicare and existing health care coverage.   The President never honestly addressed those concerns.  He insisted that the bill would not increase the deficit, though it will, that Medicare will not be adversely affected, though that will surely happen, and that people could keep their existing health insurance, when for millions of Americans that is plainly not true.  I predicted at the time that if the President did not abandon the bill or address the concerns, the debate over health care  would turn into a power struggle between the electorate and  the White House.

In my experience, voters can respect political officials who disagree with them, if there is an honest dialogue and if the public at least understands and trusts the reason for whatever action it does not like.  That dialogue has not occurred, and voters are now beginning to assert their  authority.  The public – and particularly independent voters — will tolerate disagreement, but  will not tolerate arrogance thinly masked by deception.  Whether the White House chooses to admit it or not, it is in the middle of a political and governance crisis that was not only foreseeable but inevitable – and was in every respect self inflicted.

Again, the President gives us reason to believe that he is out of touch with reality.  Even the Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have come to understand that a climate bill would devastate job creation in our current fragile economy, but the President says he’ll keep pushing for a climate bill.  Potential climate legislation only adds to the uncertainty currently in the market place – it is this uncertainty that paralyses economic growth and job creation.  Businesses are not going to grow, expand and hire new employees if they aren’t sure what the rules and regulations of their industry will be.

China views economic growth (and therefore energy consumption) as a regime stability issue. It’s no surprise that they are the number one consumer of power. Now, consider this in terms of US economic growth. Why are leaders in Congress considering cap and trade proposals that would ultimately kill American jobs?

The current leaders in Washington are not capable of grasping reality.  Face the facts: increased government spending has created the current catastrophic debt.  Heritage Foundation’s Brian Reidl makes a great case in the Wall Street Journal.