Communications

The president warned those in Washington against waging a constant campaign in last night’s State of the Union Address saying:

“But what frustrates the American people is a Washington where every day is Election Day.  We can't wage a perpetual campaign where the only goal is to see who can get the most embarrassing headlines about the other side -– a belief that if you lose, I win.”

And then later:

“So, no, I will not give up on trying to change the tone of our politics.  I know it's an election year.  And after last week, it's clear that campaign fever has come even earlier than usual.  But we still need to govern.”

What should the American people expect then, that the president stay in Washington and provide some leadership by putting aside campaign-style politics and governing, right?

Instead, as The Washington Post notes, his schedule reads like a campaign itinerary: “Obama to hit the swing-state circuit.”

The Post continues:

“…perhaps not coincidentally, the people he is ... more

They have been trying this sales pitch with health care for over a year now.

The White House has been insistent that a government takeover of the U.S. health care system is essential to our collective and individual economic security.

Now we read that the president intends to rebrand his job-killing climate change initiative by selling it too as part of his job creation agenda. 

The Democrats can read the polls. They see that the economy ranks as the top concern among voters. What they seem to be missing is the fact that selling their health care plan as essential to the health of our fiscal future has not improved the public’s opinion of it.

The American people didn’t buy this reasoning with health care and they are unlikely to see an economic agenda centered on creating “green jobs” any differently.

Besides, as the media has so helpfully pointed out, we have seen this before, very recently in fact:

Today’s NYT <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/us/politics/26budget.html>  points out that the estimated “savings” in the president’s “budget freeze” proposal would amount to less than 3% of the “roughly $9 trillion in additional deficits the government is expected to accumulate” over the next 10 years.

In defense of this underwhelming figure, an administration official offers that “limiting the …discretionary domestic budget would have symbolic value <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/us/politics/26budget.html?pagewanted=print> .”

Any “symbolic” gesture to instill fiscal discipline rings hollow though, especially considering the president’s proposal comes after a year which saw the largest one-year increase in discretionary spending over three decades <http://www.gop.com/index.php/briefing/comments/only_in_washington> .

One can hope that the president’s intention is sincere and that he will lead Democrats away from the unprecedented spending that characterized his first year in ... more

"We think we've done a great job for all working Americans out there and that includes union members," AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka said upon news that the unions have brokered a backroom deal with Democrats on healthcare. Democrats have agreed to exempt labor agreements from the tax on health care plans until 2018.

 The problem is that nearly 90% of the U.S. workforce is not part of a union. So in reality, Richard Trumka did a “great job” for just over 10% of working Americans.

It’s a shame Democrat members of Congress are not as devoted advocates for their constituents as labor bosses are for their membership.

“The disaster in Haiti is the reason why Obama's event in Maryland was canceled,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs explained this morning.

And AP reported, “Obama adjusted his Wednesday schedule, canceling a jobs event in Maryland to better monitor the situation in Haiti.”

Except that Politico reports:

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) are back in the Capitol for votes -- but they are scheduled to return to the White House immediately afterwards to continue their negotiations on health care.”

And-

“Key labor leaders are back at the White House this afternoon for negotiations on health care, according to two sources…Congressional leaders are also still at the White House, although they may not be sitting at the same table as the labor leaders.”

“You have more and more people, at least anecdotally I've picked this up, edging towards buyer remorse over their vote for Barack Obama. It's very interesting, what's going on,” Mike Barnicle, MSNBC, January 13, 2010

A new Quinnipiac Poll <http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1295.xml?ReleaseID=1411>  out today confirms that what voters are getting from the Obama Administration is not the change they expected to get. The poll finds that voters are split, 45%-45%, in judging whether Obama’s first year as president has been a success or a failure.

In particular, the poll finds that 54% disapprove of the way Obama is handling the economy and 47%, a plurality of those polled, think Obama hasn’t been spending enough time on the economy. By a 53% to 43% margin, voters said Obama “is being fiscally irresponsible in his spending of federal money.”  On health care, 58% disapproved of Obama’s handling of the issue while 35% approved.

This is the second poll in as many days to find evidence of ... more

“Stimulus” is not a popular word around the White House these days, as a WSJ piece points out. Democrats are reticent to brand their new economic legislation as round two of the $787 billion giveaway that has failed to keep national unemployment below 8% and add 3.5 million jobs to the economy as promised.

Unfortunately for Democrats their push for a second stimulus coincides with an avalanche of unfavorable headlines, including this one today from the AP, “Stimulus cash doesn't create local jobs.”  The new analysis finds that billions in road stimulus in particular has had no effect on local unemployment rates. Yet Democrats are not letting the evidence of failure keep them from pushing through billions more in road spending in Stimulus Two, as the same piece notes.

While the Democrats might be successful in naming their new jobs bill something creative like the “Jobs for Main Street Act,” they seem oblivious to what everyone else seems to know by now- it is the policies which ... more

January 11, 2009

“States do not want the ‘help’”

States are asking the Obama Administration to put a hold on implementing new EPA emission rules over concerns that more regulation would only add to their ever-widening budget deficits as well as result in more job loss. The EPA is moving to regulate emissions as it has become clear that the White House’s job-killing initiative called cap and trade is unlikely to be taken up during an election year.

State budget deficits are in the billions this fiscal year and are projected to widen further in the coming year as federal stimulus dollars run out and revenues continue to drop. Democrats claim they are looking for ways to bolster the states until the economy fully recovers. However, instead of promoting policies that lessen regulation, cut taxes and encourage growth, the White House continues to push job-killing policies and unfunded mandates such as the EPA’s new regulations and a health care bill, whose added costs the nation’s ... more

JACK CAFFERTY: How dare they. President Obama, Democratic leaders have decided to bypass a formal House and Senate conference committee in order to reconcile those two health care bills. Instead White House and Democratic leaders will hold informal, that’s another word for secret, negotiations meant to shut Republicans and the public out of the process.  

What a far cry from the election. When then candidate Obama pledged to, “broadcast health care negotiations on C-SPAN so that the American people can see what the choices are.”  President Obama hasn't even made a token effort to keep his campaign promises of more openness and transparency in government. It was all just another lie that was told in order to get elected. 

The head of C-SPAN wrote a letter, asked Congress to, “open all the important negotiations including any conference committee meetings to electronic media coverage.” When White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked whether the administration would ... more

It’s quickly becoming more a question of which promises will President Obama keep, if any, rather than which ones will he break.

As both a candidate and as president, Obama has pledged many times he will not raise taxes on the middle class, yet the president embraces a health care bill that will do just that.

Candidate Obama promised a new era of transparency, offering to air health care negotiations on C-SPAN. Obviously that is not going to be a promise kept either.

And now, despite renewed pledges over the past several months to reign in the nation’s deficit, it is becoming increasingly clearer that in the face of a failed economic policy and unbridled federal spending, the pledge to cut the deficit will be added to the list of promises not kept.

As Nancy Pelosi pointed out for us just yesterday there are a number of promises Obama made on the campaign trail that will not be kept. The question is will there be any promises he actually keeps?