The President’s Bold Speech
Posted on April 13, 2011
The President boldly put forward a brave plan to deal with our national debt problems.First, he wants to increase taxes, especially on rich people, notwithstanding that he had an excellent chance to do exactly that 6 months ago by doing nothing but let the current law take its course, and he chose not to.
Second, he wants to keep his signature legislative achievement, Obamacare, in place. He believes that by rapidly increasing the government’s share of health care spending in this country, he will somehow bring down the deficit.
Third, he wants to pay doctors less and pay less for prescription drugs. That, in a nutshell, is his Medicare reform.
Fourth, he wants to cut defense, by a bunch.
Fifth, he wants to do nothing to Social Security. All good here. Nothing wrong with this program. He is going to leave it alone. Now that is real courage. How bold Obama has become.
Sixth, he wants to give the states some unspecified flexibility on Medicaid, but doesn’t want to give the States any real power to achieve savings.
Seventh, he wants to impose an across the board cut sometime in 2014, in the last two years of his Presidency (should he get re-elected), if the deficit looks really bad (which, of course, it will). By then, Obama will be on easy street, starting on his plans to build his Presidential library. The big decision for him will be whether the library will be at the University of Chicago (where he used to teach) or the University of Hawaii (presumably he was born in Hawaii). Since he will have to do many site visits to Hawaii to see where his library could be located, he won’t have much time or inclination to worry about the phantom across the board cuts (which will never, ever get enacted into law anyway).
What Mr. Obama has done here is give us another one of his campaign speeches. There is nothing in this drivel that shows an ounce of leadership or a gram of deep thinking.
So, this is the Obama version of bold.
Count me among the many who remain unimpressed.