WASHINGTON – Pres. Obama came, he spoke, it’s done. I’m not impressed, because what we heard was Candidate Obama, someone I know all too well.
If Obama hadn’t given into Republican economic policy in the first place the speech would never have been necessary. But it was, because propping up the GOP notion that tax and spending cuts are the answers is chipping away at Pres. Obama’s legitimacy as Democratic Party leader.
According to a senior administration official I heard yesterday speak on the budget, the “debt fail safe trigger” is about weaving “confidence” into the system while also ensuring “enforcement” to send the message that action will take place no matter what circumstances occur.
Here’s a much better idea:
A trick question: If Congress takes no action in coming years, what will happen to the budget deficit? It will shrink — and shrink a lot. This simple fact may offer the best hope for deficit reduction. – David Leonhardt
It’s all just so ridiculous.
BEST TWEET YESTERDAY: why im not president. my version: “the gop plan is a disaster and ill chew my arm off before i sign it” – Rep. Anthony Weiner
The Los Angeles Times took a page from what I’ve been writing for weeks:
[…] Obama doesn’t realize how many millions of Americans consider themselves vulnerable today, even with jobs and a home for now. In Philadelphia when one man dared to ask about the rising price of gas for his commute, the president suggested he trade-in for a new car. This from the green president who took a 17-vehicle motorcade of limos and SUVs to admire clean cars last month. Not even one symbolic electric job.
The result of such disconnection is that last week there was no-nada-zip talk about his investing. The parade had moved on without its presidential drum major.
Every word of Washington’s political discussion was about cuts in the budget, exactly and only what Republicans wanted to debate. In a town where all-powerful presidents have set the political agenda, the speaker from Ohio, who gets mocked for his emotions and tan, was driving the discussions with well-mannered aplomb.
Hence, again the perceived need for another Obama speech today.
After buying into Bush tax cuts Obama decides tax cuts for the wealthy are now bad. So, he was for tax cuts before he was against them.
It’s exhausting and all so unnecessary.
The numbers comprising our debt and deficit are terrifying because people believe they’re terrifying, but also because our politicians’ reactions to them make us feel helpless. Because the heart-stopping reality is that no one seems to understand that none of what’s being talked about matters if we don’t do something about our trade policy, investment (think jobs) and education.
Currently all we’ve got is hyper-ventilating politicians on both sides angling for 2012.
Tea Partiers are talking about ending the American way of life. While Donald Trump talks on China and U.S. trade, but negates it all through birtherism baloney; and Mitt Romney gets credit for saying the word jobs, even if he looks like a Viagra ad doing it; meanwhile, Tim Pawlenty runs around squealing notice me.
Jon Stewart solves the problem in less time than it took Obama’s handlers to dress the stage yesterday. If only Pres. Obama hadn’t caved on extending the Bush tax cuts in the first place.
Our “leaders” are stuck on stupid.
Taylor Marsh is a Washington based political analyst, writer and commentator on national politics, foreign policy, and women in power. A veteran national politics writer, Taylor’s been writing on the web since 1996. She has reported from the White House, been profiled in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and has been seen on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic, as well as on radio across the dial and on satellite, including the BBC. Marsh lives in the Washington, D.C. area. This column is cross posted from her blog.