Has any sitting president ever had it so bad? Obama thinks not:"I just want to make a little commentary about the media here, if you don't mind. When Congress included in last year's budget a whole bunch of earmarks, you remember there was a week worth of stories about how terrible these earmarks were. You remember this, Chip — a week worth of stories — 'oh, these earmarks, this is what's blowing up the deficit, this is terrible,' blah, blah, blah."
[Interesting. We say: "Obama, you're breaking your promise to curb earmarks." Obama hears: "Blah, blah, blah."]
Obama goes on:
"And yet, as I said before, that was less than 1% of that entire budget that had been signed. When we find $17 billion worth of cuts in programs, what do the same folks say? They say, 'Oh, that's nothing.' (Laughter.) 'Now, that's not even — that's not even — that's not significant. That's not important.' Well, you can't have it both ways. If those earmarks were important, then this money is important, too."
Reaction from Allah Pundit:
"Of course...he didn’t really 'cut' any money at all; he just reallocated it to other programs. Combine that with the fact that the total budget was revised upwards this week by another $89 billion — more than five times the amount of the cuts we’re all supposed to be so impressed with — and the more apt comparison here is between 1% in earmarks and, er, -2% in 'cuts.' Good work, Barry."
More commentary on the same speech (wherein Obama starts talking like a tea bagger), this time from Ace of Spades...
Obama: "The long-term deficit and debt that we have accumulated is unsustainable. We can't keep on just borrowing from China, or borrowing from other countries because part of it is, we have to pay for — we have to pay interest on that debt."
Ace of Spades: Shut up, really?!
"He's talking up 'spending cuts' even as he spends more and more. And he's selling his universal health care rationing program as some kind of savings, because, somehow, this will drive costs down. Or somethin'.
"I think we sort of know where this is headed. He's going to pull the old con man move of talking around a possibility, until it ultimately starts occurring to people 'Hey, maybe we need to raise taxes on ourselves!'
"At which point Obama will exclaim, 'Wow, what an interesting idea! ...Golly Gee Willickers, that sure seems to make a tremendous amount of sense! Sorta cuts the Gordian Knot right in half with a decisive chop, doesn't it? You really are a very smart person, you know that? Here, have a cookie.'"
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Poll: By 3-to-1 Majority, Public Says It's Time for Obama to Stop Blaming Bush and Start Taking Responsibility.
Liberalism: Cruel, Corrupt, Unjust, Wasteful, Deluded
