REMEMBER WHEN A DEBT DEAL WAS ALMOST REACHED, BUT PRESIDENT OBAMA DECIDED AT THE LAST MINUTE TO INSIST ON $400 BILLION MORE IN TAX HIKES? Boehner walked out and there was yet another delay. Then Boehner, Reid and McConnell began to work alone and came up with a plan, which is the plan that took effect.
The President became irrelevant in the process, but now he is rewriting history and blaming Congress for the problems. What an easy target they are with their 10% approval rating and the cooperation of the “love-Obama-very-much” media.
In another sound bite to a crowd of Michigan auto workers, President Obama portrayed himself as separate and apart from the deeply divided Congress (he failed to mention he is separate because he kept mucking up the process). He railed against Congress (hinting it was the Republican Congress) for “bickering” that gets in the way of recovery, and pledged to come up with fresh ideas to create jobs.
If he has these ideas, I wish the hay he’d tell us about them. So far, his ideas haven’t been anything but smoke and mirrors. Most people now realize the Stimulus added almost a trillion dollars to the deficit and created temporary or part time jobs, mostly union jobs, it made welfare even more enabling, it sneaked in Obamacare panels that scare the bejeebers out of me, and so on. The Quantitative Easing has devalued the dollar, caused inflation and incurred some ire among our debt holders. His spending isn’t working.
After speaking to the auto workers in Michigan, Obama went to a fundraiser and complimented himself over his leadership . He did not present any specifics. Maybe his ideas are to keep running fundraisers – that certainly puts him and his cronies back to work.
“I’m going to be putting out more proposals, week by week, that will help businesses hire and put people back to work,” he told the Michigan auto workers event.
But Obama did not immediately spell out any new initiatives beyond renewing his call for Congress to extend a payroll tax cut, advance trade pacts with South Korea, Panama and Colombia, and deliver patent reform.
Obama blamed the market gyrations on forces beyond his control, noting European financial turmoil was “lapping up” on U.S. shores and saying the S&P downgrade “could have been entirely avoided” if Congress had been willing to compromise.
Later, at a celebrity-studded campaign fundraiser at a New York City residence, Obama described political gridlock as a primary threat to the U.S. economy, and one he hoped would be overcome in the 2012 election.
“There is not a single problem we are facing that we cannot solve,” he told the dinner party of about 50 guests, who included the actress Gwyneth Paltrow, the clothing designer Vera Wang and the comedian Jimmy Fallon.
Editor’s Note: Well, then solve them already.