Good speech. Not on the level of his Philadelphia speech, but a solid effort that sets the stage for the months to come. It will be interesting to see what the GOP says about the investment. The problem with all our overspending the last 30 years is that most of it's been wasted. The roads, the bridges the rails have been falling apart.
I’m not all that thrilled by cuts in discretionary domestic spending, but Obama met the GOP on that one, but the pointed out that’s just 12 percent of the budget and will not get us anywhere near the goal.
Obama did not go into detail, but he did offer specific plans. Most importantly, he endorsed the debt commission's approach. The GOP cannot get away with shouting from the rooftops that things need to be cut, but fail to offer any specifics or offer the Ryan plan that will balance the budget by 2069. Obama is following the same model he did with health care. He's setting the target. How we hit that target is going to be up to Congress.
Will the GOP take that bait? They can either rise to the challenge and genuinely work with him to reach these goals, or they will refuse to work with him. If they choose the former, they're going to have a hard time running against Obama in two years. How can they do that if they've worked with him? If they choose the later then they are going to have to explain why they've pissed away another two years, when they had one house. Will voters continue to support a party that offers nothing but criticism?
Obama's approach of leaving the detail work to others has several advantages. One is that it gets everyone involved. The door is open for the GOP, just as it was for health care. If they refuse to walk through the door this time, they are going to have to explain it. The other advantage is that Obama maintains his leverage. By setting the target he becomes the parent. If things bog down he can step in if the opportunity is there. If not, the blame doesn't fall on him.
Bachmann gave him a huge boost. She offered nothing but cheerleading, a word I choose after giving careful though to the potential for sexist connotation. But Bachmann’s speech was nothing but “Yay America, Boo Obama.” She can’t even do basic math. She pointed out that Obama promised (he actually predicted, but let’s not get bogged down in facts, right Michelle?) unemployment would be capped at 8 percent by the stimulus. Then she claims that Obama said unemployment would actually go down from 2006 levels. Which is it?
Bachmann simply isn’t serious about governing, and neither is the tea party. Obama on the other hand has made the necessary pivot from staving off economic collapse to dealing with the issues that he ran for, namely the deficit. Tonight’s endorsement of the debt commission’s approach and his reach across the aisle on tort reform and spending freezes is a good start.
9:55 Did you know that Iwo Jima was a battle Americans won against all odds? Do these people have the first freaking clue about history? Are you kidding me?
9:54 Michelle Bachmann, who can't take her eyes off the teleprompter believes in American exceptionalism. So does Obama.
9:53 How is medical malpractice reform a free market solution?
9:51 Obama's added less to the deficit than Bush. She did say that Bush's spending was unacceptable. Don't recall her saying that at the time. I could be wrong. Continues to repeat the lie about health care reform increasing the deficit. Cap and trade? Isn't that dead?
9:49 Bachmann starts. Deficit was 10.6 trillion. How much lower would unemployment be without the stimulus? She doesn't mention that. Then she says Obama promised lower unemployment after saying he promised 8 percent. Which is it?
9:38 Thank God. A poll. I was worried we'd have to wait. CBS isn't running Bachmann.
9:36 Ryan is saying we want to work with the president. But he's pointing out that the GOP has cut the House budget is restoring "spending discipline" to the way it was in 2006. Great, more Bush spending. Ryan is doing a good job of explaining why the debt is a problem and framing it as a children's issue "no one person or party is to blame. Then goes right on attacking Obama on spending increases during a recession.
Ryan is blaming healthcare costs on a law that hasn't taken effect yet. Saying people are losing coverage under a plan that mandates coverage. Now I'm waiting to see what the GOP plan is to reduce health care costs and insure the uninsured. Nope he just repeats the lie that health care reform will increase the deficit. He ignores the fact that repeal will add to the deficit. Ryan offers no specifics whatsoever. So far, more of the same from the GOP.
Ryan: "We need to chart a new course." That's conservative? Is he promising that we won't have to impose painful austerity measures? He's calling for us to avoid the fate of Greece. How exactly can we avoid tax increases and painful austerity measures. He also bemoans the actions that broke our economy, just minutes after bemoaning the fixes that were required.
Now Bachmann. This should be fun.
9.18 SHELIA JUST GOT TOTALLY DISSED!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
9:15 I love Bob Schieffer and he's the reason why I'm on CBS. But he's gone a little soft on the reconciliation.
9:14 Before I forget. Shelia Jackson-Lee is a aisle hog and a camera whore (hat tip to Banjo Jones) and I love it that Obama blew her off on the way in. Now if he would just slap her on the way out, he'll lock up my vote. Katie Couric is calling him Reaganesque, that will be tomorrow's blog. Beaumont folks need to know that Ted Poe is kissing up to the president. Jeff Greenwald is saying Reagan was non-partisan. More on that in tomorrow's post as well.
9:13 "The state of our union is strong." Love it, from a style standpoint that he held that to the end.
9:07 "It will be harder, because we will argue about everything." Let's face it, we don't want to hear that. But he turns it into a national strength, which it should be, of course, then panders to American exceptionalism for some cheap applause. "We all believe in the rights enshrined in our Constitution." He is arguing that we all agree on the goals, just differ on the means. I'm not sure that's true anymore. (Boehner is about to cry). If we haven't crossed the Rubicon, there is a large faction of the body politic looking for a place to ford.
9:04 We stand with Tunisia and support hopes of democracy from all people. Egypt? Egypt? Anyone? Egypt?
8:59 Respect for the rule of law might carry more weight if he would not attempt to assassinate U.S. citizens with no judicial or congressional check. And actually use our Constitution to fight terror instead of trying to get around it.
8:56 Wants meetings with lobbyists on line. I'm laughing my ass off. Everyone in that room just shat themselves.
8:47 The debt. Deficit is "not sustainable." Freeze domestic spending for next five years. Gets a bogey clap. Reduction of 400 billion and lowers deficit to Ike levels in relation to GDP. Cuts to community action programs. 10s of billions in spending from defense. "I'm willing to eliminate whatever we can honestly afford to do without. Let's make sure we're not doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens." Decries any plan to cut deficit by cutting investments in education and innovation. Admits cuts are in 12 percent of our budget and here we go. "We have to stop pretending that cutting this kind of spending will be enough. It won't."
He just put the GOP in the corner. He has endorsed the methods of the debt commission and points out that repealing health care will add $250 million (or billion missed that). He is taking the first step across the aisle by offering to work on tort reform.
The GOP simply cannot brand him a tax and spender in response to this. He is willing to cut. But he also says it's more important to educate our kids than to give millionaires tax breaks. How, exactly, is one going to argue against this? He again comes back to tax code reform. This is the candidate who ran for president, who befuddled Hillary and destroyed McCain. Government must be more affordable and efficient. He's now listing inefficiencies in government, giving salmon as an example. Pretty good line.
8:44 So Boehner doesn't clap when the president talks about preventing insurance companies from exploiting patients. Is he pro-patient exploitation? Can't wait for Jon Stewart's take on this.
8:41 Tax code reform. Yes! He's calling for a simplified system that will lower the corporate rate without adding to deficit. Again, no specifics.
8:37 Immigration. Willing to take it on after a call for allowing children raised to be safe from deportation and pointing out it's idiotic to educate foreign students then kick them out to compete against us. But again, I have to point out there are no specifics. This is along the same lines as health care. He's setting the goal and leaving the means to reach that goal open.
Now he's on to infrastructure. This is an issue on which the GOP is vulnerable if it gets pressed. Private firms aren't going to build the new rail and new roads that we need.
8:31 Interesting note about Race to the Top. Texas is one of the 10 states that refused the money, citing the strings that would be attached. The strings, of course, are higher achievement standards. At least one school board and superintendent in my area asked that they be allowed to compete. Their explained to their (Republican) reps that they had no problem meeting the standards. They felt that they should have the option to go after the money, and that doing so would be consistent with Republican rhetoric about local control. They were turned down cold. There was no interest in leveraging federal money to help schools in Texas, even when it cost nothing because of the fear that it would help the other side. That it would help the children and the state was irrelevant.
8:29 Talking about importance of education. Wonder if Perry is listening? Points out that families and communities are responsible for their children's education. Gets standing O on science fair line. Wonder if those are the same folks ripping him for being an Ivy League elitist? No specific proposals at this point.
8:27 Instead of subsidizing yesterday's energy, let's invest in tomorrow's. Calls for ending subsidies to oil companies. Got claps from the audience. Not sure they meant it. But that's one point for a specific proposal. Or semi-specific anyway.
8:24 "This is our sputnik moment." Calls for investments in things we desperately need. But no word on how we pay for them while heeding his call to reign in the deficit.
8:23 Nice golf clap. GOP seems to be waiting for the other shoe to drop. I think they like what they hear so far, and that scares them.
8:16 America is a "light to the world." So much for the lie that Obama rejects American exceptionalism.
Indications are the president will call for a five year freeze on discretionary spending. I don't see how that is possible with the infrastructure challenges that are facing us unless we're going to seriously rethink our military presence in the world.
He's starting out where he left off in Tuscon. I'm waiting to find out what's going to happen with the deficit. I'm hoping he'll take the commission's recommendations as a starting point. Let's see, shall we?
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