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'Stupid' Leadership Has Sapped America's Hope

Business is losing faith as government spends like spoiled kids

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 30, 2009 3:00 AM CDT

(Newser) – The economy's growing again but the people Peggy Noonan talks to—"the American leadership class who are not in Washington, most especially those in business"—have lost their confidence that a turnaround is coming. That's because they don't think the government has any solutions to America's problems other than tax-and-spend, and that doesn't work. "The most sophisticated Americans, experienced in how the country works on the ground, can't figure a way out," Noonan argues in the Wall Street Journal.

The administration is naively taxing the hope out of businesspeople, Noonan writes. They came of age during a time of abundance and think America is the "goose that lays the golden egg," she argues, and don't realize that their policies are capable of doing serious damage. Those in charge, Noonan concludes, are "stupid and they are callous, and they don't mind it when people become disheartened. They don't even notice."

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Nancy Thorner, dressed as Lady Liberty, participates in a Tea Party protest at the Federal Building Plaza in Chicago, Illinois earlier this year. (Getty Images)

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This is historic. This is something new in modern political history, and I'm not sure we're fully noticing it. Americans are starting to think the problems we are facing cannot be solved. - Peggy Noonan

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'Stupid' Leadership Has Sapped America's Hope