Carter Wrenn posted on July 05, 2012 16:25
It happens on Wall Street: A tycoon calls an eager young executive into his office and hands him a job to do (like selling Facebook stock) and says, This is your responsibility – you ‘own’ it.
Three years into the ‘Great Recession’ no politician in his right mind wants to ‘own the economy.’ It would be like owning the ‘Death Star.’
Which is why House Speaker Thom Tillis telling the News and Observer “Republicans now own the economy” sounded strange.
At first I thought the Speaker must have confused himself with the President who controls a great deal more of North Carolina’s economy than the Speaker of the House.
Then I thought the idea of politicians ‘owning’ the economy is just plain silly – the economy’s a beast with a mind of its own that regularly tramples politicians in its wake.
For example, North Carolina’s gross domestic product is $385 billion a year and Speaker Tillis can influence exactly 5% of that economy (the $20 billion state budget) – so how can he ‘own’ the whole she-bang? It’s a mystery. But we have Speaker Tillis’ word for it: He ‘owns’ it all.
And the Democrats are delighted.