Blaming the GOP Isn't Working
President Obama seems full of double talk these days, all smoke and mirrors, as Angelina Jolie reportedly has described him. (I'm loathe to borrow words from a celebrity but it is a spot on assessment.) Listening to the president’s comments lately, one would think the Republicans were in the governing majority over the past year and it was their fault the president couldn't push through his costly, government expansion agenda.
This is of course despite the reality that last year, the Democrats had solid majorities in both the House and Senate. Now that Obama is not delivering on his promises he's blaming everything on "the previous administration and the previous Congresses" and the $1.3 trillion debt he inherited. But neither President Bush nor congressional Republicans were in charge last year. Let's review:
- President Obama got Congress to pass the $787 billion stimulus and promised it would create 3.5 million jobs and unemployment wouldn't rise above 8%. Neither happened: unemployment surged to 10% and a mere 600,000 jobs may have been created.
- The president promised the Making Home Affordable program would help 4 million borrows avoid foreclosure. It has maybe helped 110,000 homeowners since February 2009.
- Banks received billions in bailout money. In return, they have hoarded cash, reduced consumer lending and reward themselves by paying employees $145 billion in 2009, about 18% more than 2008.
- Obama promised to pass a $1 trillion healthcare reform bill. He had about 12 months and solid Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate. It didn't happen.
The president promised he would bring "change to Washington that people could believe in." Didn't happen; instead he brought an extreme liberal ideologue agenda to Washington.
Now that the president's agenda is in tatters, and Democrats no longer have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate thanks to Scott Brown, the president wants to "work with Republicans" to get the country back on track. Until Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy's Massachusetts Senate seat, neither the president nor Democratic congressmen showed any interest in working with the Republicans on anything, specifically healthcare reform. As polls showed mounting disapproval from Americans for the healthcare reform bill, Democrats and the president became even more resolute in passing it.
But now, the Democrats’ solid majority has been cracked by Brown's win, even Democrats are backing off their "we're in charge and can do whatever we want" attitude. This probably has something to do with 58% of Americans believing the country was headed in the wrong direction (WSJ/NBC poll) and the upcoming 2010 midterm election. But since his SOTU speech, the president revealed he really doesn't intend on working with Republicans and last week's speech was "smoke and mirrors." President Obama is digging in his heels more than ever. Since releasing his $3.8 trillion budget for 2011, he's vowed to fight, fight, fight for the same broken, partisan spending agenda of last year. His budget will result in the nation's debt rising to $8.5 trillion over the next 10 years. And once again Obama is offering up the same old porridge of $1 trillion in proposed taxes on so-called wealthy Americans, which was rejected last year.
Obama has been quoted saying: "What I will not welcome-what I reject- is the same old grandstanding when the cameras are on, and the same irresponsible budget policies when the cameras are off." Sounds like Obama is talking about himself. But who knows what to believe coming out of the president's mouth. What's clear as many reporters have noted is that the Obama spell has been broken. Americans aren't buying the magic anymore and may be viewing the president more and more as a one termer. Looks like the "tea partiers"' weren't just a few right wing mobs after all (as many liberals and some conservatives suggested last summer) but represented the anger felt by most of the American people.