Obama's Re-election Speech From Yesterday

Obama delivered what he wanted us to believe was a serious speech aimed at charting this nation's course to "reduce the deficit." Let's ignore the fact that the deficit doesn't need to be reduced, it needs to be eliminated and turned into a surplus so we can begin paying down the debt.

So, what did the President say?

The thing he did the most was bash the Republicans. He trashed their plans and insulted them on numerous occasions, and it's not surprising that few Republicans are now in a mood to cooperate with Obama. I mean, beating your opponents with a rather large verbal stick isn't a good way to win their support.

Then he presented his "plan." I put the word "plan" in quotes, because it really wasn't a plan. It was more like a few ideas that could, with a lot of hard work, be turned INTO a plan. It lacked very many details. He CLAIMED he wanted $4 trillion of cuts in 12 years, but didn't provide any specifics as to how he would accomplish that.

The other part of the "plan" that he presented, and this one seemed pretty well thought out, was tax increases. Yes, he wants to raise taxes on the hated and despised "rich" people in our country. That one was a given, really. But he ALSO wants to eliminate deductions and credits, something he referred to as "tax expenditures." Here's the strange thing... he counted these "tax expenditures" as "spending cuts"... when, in reality, they are tax increases.

Here's how he rationalizes this.


What we're dealing with is tax deductions and tax credits that companies and individuals currently have access to in order to reduce their overall tax burden. The White House views these exemptions, that otherwise would be collected as tax revenues, to be government expenditures. By eliminating them, his opinion is that they have reduced government spending. The fact that many people would pay higher taxes doesn't seem to bother him. It's an amazingly dextrous piece of fiscal gymnastics.

The reality is that he has two tax increases as the centerpiece of his "plan." Well, that's not quite accurate. He has three.

You see, his idea is that, instead of putting spending caps in place, we let Congress do what it will and, if the deficit isn't decreasing by 2014, then that would trigger an automatic tax increase. How about that idea, folks? If Congress doesn't behave themselves, WE get punished for it? I don't think so.

The President decried the Republicans for pursuing their "extremist agenda"... an action I think is akin to the pot calling the kettle black. Obama has been pursuing an extremist agenda since he took office. Opposing that agenda isn't, in and of itself, extreme.

In my own, humble opinion, this wasn't a policy speech as much as it was an election speech. The purpose was to re-energize his base.

There has been a lot of talk lately about Obama's movement to the "center" of the political spectrum. With this speech he destroys that fantasy and shows that he has, in fact, doubled-down on the same liberal economic and fiscal policies that have never worked once to encourage economic growth and prosperity.

So, take this away with you. Obama thinks Republicans are villains, wants to raise your taxes REALLY badly, and wants you to believe he actually wants to cut spending. That's basically what you can gather from this speech.