Maybe it’s just that he’s waiting for others to craft the reforms so he can see how people react before signing on to anything. This way, he accrues the benefit of supporting a popular reform without the political risk of backing a proposal which might alienate his base.
I endorsed Jon Huntsman for President, in part, because of his bold tax reform plan. In his speech last night, the man the former Utah Governor once sought to replace addressed the issue thusly: “It’s time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America. Send me these tax reforms, and I’ll sign them right away.” He went on to repeat his mantra about having the rich pay more.
Note how in the passage cited above, the president asked someone else to write the reforms and send them to him. He failed to offer a plan of his own.
In a similar vein, here’s how he addressed entitlement reform: “I’m prepared to make more reforms that rein in the long term costs of Medicare and Medicaid, and strengthen Social Security, so long as those programs remain a guarantee of security for seniors.”
Prepared to make? Prepared to make, Mr. President? The President of the United States should be doing more than just make preparations, he should be proposing solutions.
Let me quote what Huntsman said about Medicare reform:
I admire Congressman Paul Ryan’s honest attempt to save Medicare. Those who disagree with his approach incur a moral responsibility to propose reforms that would ensure Medicare’s ability to meet its responsibilities to retirees without imposing an unaffordable tax burden on future generations of Americans.
Paul Ryan is not the president. (Hopefully, one day he will be.) Yet, he has put forward a solution. He did more than just indicate his preparation to act. He made a decision about where he stood — and expressed it in the form of a proposal that could be enacted into law. Isn’t that what leaders are supposed to do?
My immediate response to this:
“What? He asked Congress to draft legislation, vote on it, and then send it to the President? Unthinkable!”
The whole post does seem a little off. Obama asking Congress to pass reform bills and send them to him to be signed isn’t shirking his responsibilities. Congress are supposed to be the ones writing and passing bills, not the President.
Fair point, Serenity, but Congress, well, the House at least, has already voted on a reform plan — which he and his fellow partisans have demagogued. Hence, I chose to include the Huntsman quote. If he doesn’t like the plan, he owes the American people the decency of offering an alternative.
One more thing. Your comment does reinforce my point. You’re acknowledging that he is leading from behind, waiting for others to act.
Obama’s ability to speak in contradiction of reality is brazen; perhaps psychotic. He’s the kid who gets all ‘F’ grades and then loudly announces, “I have a Straight-A Policy.”
Obama claiming that he’ll sign pro-job tax reforms is a prime example. Dan, you have a great point: that *it is Obama’s place to propose such plans* (especially if He doesn’t like what’s come out of Congress already), and why isn’t He doing so? But the problem runs deeper. Even if Congress sent Him real, pro-job tax reforms, He’d shoot them down. He simply announces (in contradiction of reality) that He favors him, and His sheep-like, yet pompous followers swallow it and bleat it out.
I can’t quite decide if Obama’s behavior is brazen – an example of Goebbels’ “Big Lie” technique, used cynically to deceive the masses – or psychotic, i.e. he might believe his own tripe. George Orwell’s _1984_ teaches us that it could be both.
Another example is a headline that I just saw, that Obama promises “no bailouts, no handouts, no copouts.” His domestic policy from day 1 has consisted of nothing EXCEPT bailouts, handouts and copouts. So he announces the opposite.
Typo – “He simply announces… that He favors -them-“, i.e. that He favors such plans.
My larger point: Americans get the government they deserve. Long-term deception isn;t only the fault of the deceiver, it’s also the fault of the deceived. If 51% Americans prefer having an Obama to lie to them, then they shall have it.
President Obama needs another diaper change. Quick call Valerie Jarret, David Plouffe, Michelle Obama or David Axelrod! In other words, Obama is never going to lead. He is simply not a leader but demagogue, a cult of personality with malignant narcissism as fragile as an egg.
And ILC, his ability to speak in contradiction goes back to the very way he defined himself, as a man who can transcend partisan politics and wants to end the blame-game of our nation’s capital, yet his rhetoric has been most (not post) partisan and he delights in the blame game. Few presidents, if any, have bemoaned the situations they “inherited” from their predecessors – or blamed their partisan adversaries so readily for their own failures.
The guy who signed on for $20 Billion in loans to Brazil so that they can develop off-shore oil drilling while effectively shutting down domestic off-shore oil development is lecturing others about exporting jobs?
Typical SCOAMF.