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Responding to Obama’s nuanced SOTU speech

Posted 25 Feb 2009 in Barack Obama, economy, hypocrisy

“I promise you — I get it!”

For me, that was President Obama’s most disingenuous phrase of the evening. And the perfect summary for all he’s done wrong up to now.

He most certainly does not “get it.” Tonight’s half-hearted pep talk doesn’t undo the past month of fearmongering he’s engaged in every time he’s spoken about the economy. The American people continually hear about how this is the worst economy since the Great Depression; carefully chosen language which brings to mind bread lines and crushing poverty. Obama’s even gone so far as to say we might “never recover” without the profligate spending he and Congressional Democrats are peddling.

Fifty-two minutes of insincere puffery won’t undo all that now.

I was going to fisk the rest of PBHO’s speech (full transcript here), but it’s already been thoroughly fact-checked and found seriously wanting. Shockeroo!

President Barack Obama knows Americans are unhappy that their taxes will be used to rescue people who bought mansions beyond their means. But his assurance Tuesday night that only the deserving will get help rang hollow.

Even officials in his administration, many supporters of the plan in Congress and the Federal Reserve chairman expect some of that money will go to people who used lousy judgment.
…
OBAMA: “We have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and refinance their mortgages. It’s a plan that won’t help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are struggling with declining home values.”

THE FACTS: If the administration has come up with a way to ensure money only goes to those who got in honest trouble, it hasn’t said so.
…
Similarly, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. suggested this month it’s not likely aid will be denied to all homeowners who overstated their income or assets to get a mortgage they couldn’t afford.

“I think it’s just simply impractical to try to do a forensic analysis of each and every one of these delinquent loans,” Sheila Bair told National Public Radio.
…
OBAMA: “In this budget, we will end education programs that don’t work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don’t need them. We’ll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq, and reform our defense budget so that we’re not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don’t use. We will root out the waste, fraud and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn’t make our seniors any healthier, and we will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas.”

THE FACTS: First, his budget does not accomplish any of that. It only proposes those steps. That’s all a president can do, because control over spending rests with Congress. Obama’s proposals here are a wish list and some items, including corporate tax increases and cuts in agricultural aid, will be a tough sale in Congress.

Then, of course, President Obama used last night’s opportunity to begin the sales pitch for government takeover of the healthcare industry. The Newspeak for socialized medicine is now “health care reform.” Expect to hear that phrase parroted almost as often as we’re hearing “bold” and “swift” (euphemistically referring to the heedless manner in which this gargantuan spending legislation was approved without bipartisan oversight nor the review of the American people).

As to the Republican response afterwards, am I the only one that thought Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal did ok? Sure, he wasn’t polished in his presentation. But I really didn’t expect him to rise to the level of Obama’s teleprompter oratory. I wasn’t able to see Jindal’s performance on TV, I only heard him on the radio. And although I thought he was a bit too conciliatory, I understand the reasoning behind it and thought the substance of his words were adequate to begin the repositioning of the GOP. I did, however, think he spent too much time playing nice with our new president. By the time he got down to the real meat of his message, I’m betting most Americans had tuned out.

That said, half our neighbors apparently value style over substance as evidenced by the numbers of people who were snookered by Barack Obama’s vacuous campaign last year. Conservatives need to voice their alternative proposals in the manner in which last year’s debates on offshore drilling captured America’s attention and forced Democrats to retreat.

It’s not just ideas that will carry the day. Conservatives need to spend more thought on the way they market their ideas. The tastiest product in the world will sit unopened on the shelf without an attention-grabbing package. And right now, over half our fellow citizens are eagerly chugging overpriced (and ass-flavored) Obama Kool-Aid, just because it has fancy rainbows & unicorns on the wrapper.

Posted by FullMetalPatriot
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT

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