During President Obama’s presidential campaign I would frequently hear his campaign speeches and think ‘That’s a great idea.’ Inevitably though, that thought would be followed with the questions ‘how?’ or ‘with what money?’ It seemed he had a great idea for everything but it wasn’t spelled out how all these things would be accomplished.
Last Wednesday’s State of the Union address brought back those same thoughts. For instance, when the President mentioned forgiving college debt after a certain number of years. A great idea I thought-no one should be burdened with such heavy penalties for seeking a higher education. But where is the money to forgive that debt going to come from? And is the government going to regulate this program to ensure it’s not abused? Back to campaign mode, I thought.
Unlike the 2008 campaign, the media has picked up President Obama’s speech and fact checked it.
The president pedantically quoted the Constitutional requirement that he “from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union”. But given his PR woes, information was the crucial word. Instead his speech was virtually fact-free, relying at key points upon the sorts of touching anecdotes effective on the stump but insulting to members of Congress with detailed policy responsibilities.
When he finally got to the deficit, more than half way through the speech, he promptly blamed George Bush for it. But he did not say how big it was. When he called for a spending freeze, he did not say how much it would save or why he now embraced an idea he once rejected. When he said it would exempt four key spending categories, he failed to explain what share of federal spending would be left unaffected. When he advocated abolishing the capital gains tax on small business investment, he didn’t say what the threshold for “small” business was.
Within hours MSNBC published an Associated Press “fact check” piece noting inaccuracies in more than a few of the facts he did offer. Mark Alexander of The Patriot Post chimed in that Obama’s only other reference to the Constitution, “We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution, the notion that we’re all created equal” was botched because that’s the Declaration of Independence, a strange blunder from a former University of Chicago professor of constitutional law.
Perhaps this sounds nit-picky, but compare President Obama’s SOTU to President Ford’s 1975 SOTU
“To bolster business and industry and to create new jobs, I propose a 1-year tax reduction of $16 billion. Three-quarters would go to individuals and one-quarter to promote business investment. This cash rebate to individuals amounts to 12 percent of 1974 tax payments – a total cut of $12 billion, with a maximum of $1,000 per return.”
Good idea or not, it’s specific. As was “we must reduce oil imports by 1 million barrels per day by the end of this year and by 2 million barrels per day by the end of 1977.” Ford also warned that “If we project the current built-in momentum of Federal spending through the next 15 years, State, Federal, and local government expenditures could easily comprise half of our gross national product. This compares with less than a third in 1975.”
This is actual information. Obama offered only hype, blame-shifting, and vague initiatives suitable for a campaign based on hope but deeply inadequate for a president mired in discontent because of the growing conviction that he’s all talk. (In 7,000 words he gave just 13 actual dollar figures; in 4,000 words in 1975 Ford managed 27.)
What we see of his presidency thus far is many ideas, less solutions. I wish I could say otherwise, particularly as relates to unemployment and the economy.
Nice post Meg. This brings into some clarity the vague unsettled feeling I had after watching the State of the Union.