Sweeping hand gestures were the order of today as President Obama defended his budget at a news conference (full text below), reflecting widespread skepticism over the seriousness of his spending "cuts." At last, bipartisanship to believe in.
The Democrat invested 62 presidential minutes and about 8,000 chief executive words, many of them to defend his budget priorities. The first thing the nation needs to know is that President Obama is "confident." It's his new favorite phrase, supplanting "going forward."
But the Washington political community on both sides is also confident that the Democrat's immense budget is merely a placeholder for the real spending bargaining, which will come in the next two or three months over the budget and raising the debt ceiling.
Washington wonders why so many angry Americans talk back to the news on their TVs. Here's why: Federal spending the last two years has exploded. Never mind why. It has. Obama proposes cutting some of that increased spending. The result: Cuts to brag about but still more borrowed spending than before.
And for his next trick.....
One inconvenient stat cited by the sage Ed Morrissey: Obama's own debt commission proposed deficit reductions of $4 trillion (get used to that scary word) over the next decade. Obama's budget thinks $1.1 trillion is really good.
Here's the isolated president's perception of how painfully the feds need to address their fiscal canyon: "If you’re a family trying to cut back, you might skip going out to dinner, you might put off a vacation."
Delay a vacation? Where, to his planet? When millions of American families would settle for having a job in Obama's unstimulated economy? Or keeping their home while the Democrat lobs $53 billion more taxpayer money winning the future with unions to build high-speed trains for nobody to ride -- but to do so very rapidly?
As Obama did with extending the Bush tax cuts in December, it appears....
... the president of the United States is positioning himself as the reluctant follower again: 'Gee, it looks like I'll have to accept those cuts from these GOP hostage-takers, as much as I don't like them.'
Which, of course, would get him both the cuts to brag about next year, proof of his willingness to compromise, if not lead, and cover from his left, wh
ich thinks his phony proposed cuts now are too much.
As he did with the design of the stimulus spending bill two years ago, Obama is leaving the real -- and politically risky -- detailed cutting work to Congress.
He knows and says that reforms in the huge entitlement spending is where the real whacking work needs doing. But he doesn't whack there. You first, Mr. Speaker.
On Monday when Obama's less-than bold budget plopped on Capitol Hill, Senate Democrats were way too busy to talk much on TV cameras; after all, many of them are up for reelection next year and the most recent voter message that flipped the House on a historic scale over to those Republican weinies was not exactly, "Hey, charge it. Whatever you need."
So, rushing past, Democrats said merely, good starting point. A warning sign to any White House that's attempting to substitute the word "investing" for "spending."
However, judging by the words coming from the Republican House majority, its members are preparing to respond enthusiastically to that voter spending howl. In a joint statement, the GOP's House leadership said:
The American people are ready to get serious about tackling our fiscal challenges, but President Obama’s budget fails to lead. The president’s budget punts on entitlement reform and actually makes matters worse by spending too much, taxing too much, and borrowing too much –- stifling job growth today and threatening our economic future.
Boehner added: "The president apparently believes a $607-billion budget deficit is 'living within our means.'"
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