Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Sometimes when I see SOTU, my dyslexia processes it as STFU

That is not intended to be a negative inference toward the president.  When I criticize Obama, it's without passive aggression and only occasionally with snark.


What the president will say tonight...

Democrats expressed confidence that the economic message Obama is expected to push in his speech will work to their advantage.

“He’s going to put a spotlight on this defining issue, and that spotlight will grow in the coming months,” said Rep. Steve Israel (N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “This campaign is going to be about who’s on your side. On that issue, the contrast between Democrats and Republicans in Congress could not be clearer.”

Democratic strategists consider the debate over the minimum wage and unemployment insurance important in some of the most competitive races.

What he should say...

-- Go big on economic inequality.

-- Demand an end to "too big to fail".

-- Put his weight behind the push to increase the minimum wage.

-- Quit pushing the TPP and KXL.

... and what he won't say.

If Obama were being perfectly honest, he’d explain to a nationwide audience that Washington politicians mostly plan to sit on their hands in 2014, with posturing for political advantage in the November elections far more important than helping strengthen the U.S. economy. That's why Obama will reportedly be more aggressive in using executive authority to pursue pet projects, in lieu of authorization from Congress.

Voters, for their part, also have a dwindling appetite for government solutions to economic problems. It’s not even clear there’s much Washington could do if it wanted to. “My fellow Americans,” Obama might say if administered truth serum, “this year, you’re on your own.”

He won’t say that, of course, and the press has been dutifully reporting all the new initiatives the president’s aides have been leaking to them. But the U.S. economy has now decisively shifted from crisis mode — in which the feds pump out emergency funds to make up for cutbacks in spending elsewhere, as with the big 2009 stimulus program — into recovery mode, with spending in other sectors bouncing back. State revenues, for instance, are approaching new record highs, as the Wall Street Journal recently reported, allowing governors to propose tax cuts, new spending on education and other moves typically categorized as “stimulus.”

In other words, blahblahblah*standingovationfromDems*sittingandsulkingfromRs*blahblahblah rinse repeat.

1 comment:

Gadfly said...

He's already "sold out" on equality so, nope, he won't be going big there: http://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2014/01/obama-sells-out-equality.html