Does the president “manage the economy”?
August 21st, 2008 | by Brian Schwartz |
Apparently some people think that “managing the economy”* is a presidential responsibility. From Reuters/Zogby:
McCain now has a 9-point edge, 49 percent to 40 percent, over Obama on the critical question of who would be the best manager of the economy — an issue nearly half of voters said was their top concern in the November 4 presidential election.
Mind you, this is not found in Article 2, Section 2 of the United States Constitution, which enumerates the Presidential powers.
Yet, that people expect the President to do something as improper, immoral, and impossible as managing the economy should not surprise us. (But perhaps the poll authors were either ignorant or deviously biased to hide this false premise in the question.) As Gene Healy has written in The Cult of the Presidency, “presidential candidates talk as if they’re running for a job that’s a combination of guardian angel, shaman, and supreme warlord of the earth.”
*Of which health care is a significant part.
One Response to “Does the president “manage the economy”?”
By nub on Aug 21, 2008 | Reply
hey, i’m with you on this one. it’s one reason why economic policy doesn’t factor much in my choice for president at all. i’m more concerned with the things they do have direct control over - the appointment of justices and agency heads, directing of day-to-day government operations, overall foreign policy vision, etc.