So it’s now official: Barack Obama is set to create the true Mickey Mouse economy. Don’t worry about the millions of jobs lost since I’ve been president, or our 14 million or so unemployed. We’re going to put them all back to work — but not building pipelines from Canada, or running oil refineries, or any of those hamburger-flipper–type jobs.
No, instead they will cavort with Mickey Mouse and Tinkerbell costumes at Disney World in front of hordes of tourists from China and Brazil — not to mention handing out parking stickers and picking up the trash in Yellowstone Park. Tourism is now the Obama answer to America’s economic ills — that, and easing the visa process for those Chinese and Brazilian tour groups who yearn to spend their yuans and reals at our national parks and historic sites. This is Obama’s economic thinking at its shrewdest and most incisive, and completes our transition to a European-style no-growth economy. Why build or produce anything when you can hang around and wait for the next tourist season to begin? Concentrating on the Chinese, however, is the smartest move of all — especially after dissing the Canadians by cancelling the XL Pipeline (who needs neighbors, anyway?). With Obama’s new quick-as-lightning visa process, all those People’s Liberation Army boys and girls on furlough will finally have somewhere to go, especially the ones from military intelligence. But don’t think they’ll just be satisfied with Williamsburg and the Duck Decoy Museum in Havre de Grace, Md. Why not open up Fort Nellis Air Force Base and the North American Aerospace Command Center in Colorado Springs to the Chinese tourist boom? I’m sure they’ll find plenty to amuse themselves with there, as well.