Research Briefing

In Case You Missed It:

“An Explanation To The Nation”

From Politico

By RNC Chairman Michael Steele

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

“As President Barack Obama steps up to the podium Wednesday night to deliver his State of the Union address, the American people will be intently listening for an explanation to the past year of failed policies. This president was elected to change business as usual in Washington and reach across party lines to find real solutions to improve our economy. But as we sit here today, Democrats in Congress continue their secret backroom deals, unemployment is in double digits, and all of the president’s major policy initiatives have failed to gain much, if any, bipartisan support. This is a far cry from what we were promised a year ago and the American people need answers.

“Taxpayers deserve to know why the president’s $787 billion stimulus package failed to keep unemployment below 8 percent. We deserve to know why his government takeover of health care stalled somewhere between the House and the Senate, if according to President Obama, the American people support it. And most of all, our country deserves to know why President Obama has wasted a year without working to find real solutions to create jobs and put Americans back to work. Tonight our nation deserves a genuine explanation, and we need to know how the president is planning to fix this mess his policies have made worse.

“When President Obama isn’t busy explaining away his failures, he will do his best to convince middle class America that he understands their frustrations and stands by their side. The president will both encourage a spending freeze while calling on Congress to pass an $80 billion job creation bill – here’s to hoping the American people aren’t watching too closely to note the blatant hypocrisy. Since day one, President Obama has single-mindedly pushed an all out binge spending agenda that has brought disastrous consequences to not only himself and the Democrat Party, but to our entire country. Just this week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office announced the U.S. budget deficit for the current fiscal year will reach $1.3 trillion. At a time when millions of Americans are desperately struggling to live within their means and survive this economic recession it would make sense for Washington to follow suit but President Obama has taken the exact opposite track over the past year.

“Using the economic crisis as a means to their liberal ends, President Obama started with his failed $787 billion economic stimulus package, moved to his job killing “cap and trade” scheme, and continued with his $2.5 trillion government-run health care experiment. Tonight America wants to hear an explanation for why these policies were chosen, strongly pushed, and subsequently failed. But the American people don’t want to be placated with fabrications and they don’t want to hear fantasies. They want to hear the truth and they want to hear detailed plans about job creation and more than anything they want their money back.

“Despite the president’s recent politically-tinged attempts to grab the populist mantle, this administration is anything but populist as it has largely broken its promise to help middle class families. In fact, nearly every policy initiative from the Obama Administration has included tax hikes on the middle class. President Obama and his congressional allies have repeatedly shown they are completely and consistently out of touch with Middle America. The upcoming vote by the Senate to increase America’s debt ceiling to a record breaking $1.9 trillion is just another example, in a year full of examples, of just how out of touch they are. At a time when millions of Americans are trimming their family budgets back, the fact that President Obama would work to increase America’s credit card limit so he can spend more of the taxpayers money is the exact opposite of what America wants.

“Recent polling done by Rasmussen shows that 66 percent of Americans believe this country is headed in the wrong direction and these sentiments where clearly demonstrated in major elections over the past year. Independent voters in Virginia, New Jersey and now Massachusetts have made their voices heard and are sending a united message that they’ve had enough of the binge spending and government-growing agenda coming from Washington. The American people are done with the politics as usual governing, they are ready for a change, and they are telling President Obama that they want their money back; the only question is whether or not the president will hear these concerns and finally address them.”

To View The Entire Article, Please Visit: http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=6FD947DA-18FE-70B2-A85DC644D9F8F473