Annals of Chutzpah: Obama Edition

Thursday, 11th March 2010

Thanks to Matt Welch for spotting this splendid piece of "What me?" nonsense from the President:

As we were driving in, I was saying, boy, it's just good to be back in the Midwest, this is about as close as I've been to home in a while. And part of the reason it's just good to be back is because Washington is a place where tax dollars are often treated like Monopoly money -- they're bartered and traded, and they're divvied up among lobbyists and special interests, and where waste -- even billions of dollars of waste -- is accepted as the price of doing business. When we proposed, by the way, those $20 billion in cuts last year, we were ridiculed by the press, said, "Ah, that's just a spit in the bucket." Now, I don't know about here in St. Charles, $20 billion, that's real money, isn't it?

Emphasis added. Of course, Obama is right to complain that this is exactly how Washington works. But when you're the President and your party controls both branches of Congress then, well, it's a little rich to pretend that none of this has anything to do with you. It wasnae me, a Big Congress did it and ran away...

Then again, that pretence is just another cost of doing business in the capital, ain't it?

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ndm

March 11th, 2010 7:32pm Report this comment

-- But when you're the President and your party controls both branches of Congress then, well, it's a little rich to pretend that none of this has anything to do with you.

Well the President doesn't actually vote on the budget, and it is not clear what control means in the presence of a super-majority voting requirement.

Whig

March 12th, 2010 2:15pm Report this comment

ndm - surely (i) as the President so he wields huge influence over policy-making and executive orders
(ii) he's responsible for preparing the budget
(iii) he has a veto which he can use to veto legislative measures (subject to fine print!)
(iv) Obama used to be a Senator so he had plenty of opportunity to get involved all that spending of tax dollars
(v) he's also quite correct to say that's what Washington is like, it's just extraordinary that he's saying that givven how much pork he's help add to it with that huge stimulus bill and medical reform...

ndm

March 12th, 2010 5:57pm Report this comment

-- (i) as the President so he wields huge influence over policy-making and executive orders

He certainly controls executive orders but his influence over congressional policy making is restricted by his not having a vote. He can strong arm people, invite them to the White House, etc, but this lack of influence is the primary reason so many Presidents seek to make their reputation on foreign policy which they do control.

-- (ii) he's responsible for preparing the budget

He does - but it is only a recommendation. He can kill of the F22, for example, but lawmakers can put it back into the budget if enough of them perceive of it as being good for their district.

(iii) he has a veto which he can use to veto legislative measures (subject to fine print!)

There is no line-item veto so there is no concept of subject to fine print. A Presidential veto is all or nothing.

(iv) Obama used to be a Senator so he had plenty of opportunity to get involved all that spending of tax dollars

Absolutely, but sometimes there is no better critic than the apostate.

(v) he's also quite correct to say that's what Washington is like, it's just extraordinary that he's saying that givven how much pork he's help add to it with that huge stimulus bill and medical reform...

Most people, even at the AEI, recognize that the stimulus bill was successful in its goal of stabilizing the US economy - plus roads, for example, across the country finally got fixed. Many people believe that the stimulus should have been even larger. I understand teabaggers think torturing bankers would have been stimulus enough. Healthcare reform is needed because the financing and provision of healthcare in the United States is completely out of control - aided by insurance companies whose primary business is applying a private tax to all healthcare transactions. The pork-related feature of healthcare reform comes from the pigs who pretend it is not needed because they already have their snouts deep in the trough and are concerned any new trough won't be as deep. And they are right.

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