It’s not Barack Obama’s policies. It is not the economic uncertainty over regulations and taxes. It is not the National Labor Relations Board and Department of Labor pushing aggressively pro-union agendas that hamper competition.

No, according to Barack Obama, our nation has grown soft. That’s our problem. Jimmy Carter said America was in a “malaise.” This is Barack Obama’s “malaise” moment.

It can’t be about him. It cannot be about his polices. On the same day Joe Biden declares the economy belongs to Barack Obama, Obama passes the buck. This time it is directly to the American people and American businesses.

It’s not him, you see. It’s us.

“This is a great great country that had gotten a little soft and we didn’t have that same competitive edge that we needed over the last couple of decades,” Mr. Obama said in response to a question about the country’s economic future. “We need to get back on track.”

We don’t have the competitive edge we once had because we have a President who spent two years deciding the government would grow the economy and the government would take over the auto industry and the government would take over the healthcare industry and the government would pick the winners and losers in the economy.

The American people and American business has not gone soft. They’ve gone out of business.

Barack Obama’s administration has been hostile to the financial industry, hostile to the oil and gas industry, hostile to the coal industry, hostile to the insurance industry, hostile to the service industry, hostile to pretty much every other sector of the economy that is neither part of the public sector nor wholly dependent on the public sector.

Consider Barack Obama’s regular speeches on the state of the economy.

Here is an excerpt from his speech on February 24, 2009, about his stimulus plan:

More than 90% of these jobs will be in the private sector – jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges; constructing wind turbines and solar panels; laying broadband and expanding mass transit.

Each of those “private sector” jobs would be wholly dependent on government money. The infrastructure jobs would be paid for by government infrastructure spending. The clean energy jobs would be paid for with government subsidies to companies like Solyndra. The laying broadband and mass transit would likewise be private sector jobs doing the bidding of government.

Consider his January 27, 2010, State of the Union address:

More than 90% of these jobs will be in the private sector – jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges; constructing wind turbines and solar panels; laying broadband and expanding mass transit.

All of these are government jobs or jobs wholly dependent on government for funding.

Consider his January 25, 2011, State of the Union:

We will put more Americans to work repairing crumbling roads and bridges. We will make sure this is fully paid for, attract private investment, and pick projects based on what’s best for the economy

Again, government dependent jobs.

Then there was the President’s “jobs” speech on September 8, 2011:

The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working. It will create more jobs for construction workers, more jobs for teachers, more jobs for veterans, and more jobs for long-term unemployed.

All of these jobs the President had in mind were jobs either within the public sector or wholly dependent on the public sector. They were not true private sector jobs where the entrepreneurs of the private sector went out and took a risk to get the reward of profit filling a need for the American consumer or business. Barack Obama has worked very hard to take risk out of the free market and, in fact, to punish risk takers who are successful. He has made entrepreneurs the villains. He’s made job creators the bad guys. He’s made the successful sinners and the Solyndras of the world the saints.

And what is the net result of all these speeches and policy proposals? As Mark Levin points out, the Democrats themselves in the Senate do not have the votes to pass the President’s jobs bill. The Senate Democrats reject President Obama’s plan.

Again, the American people have not gone soft. They’ve gone out of business thanks to Barack Obama and his failed economic policies. Even the Senate Democrats are starting to pay attention to a President who has gone from audacious hope to hopeless audacity.