Krauthammer, Krugman, now Samuelson, Oh, My!
By LisaB on March 9, 2009 at 9:35 PM in Current Affairs
If you haven’t read RRRA’s great piece on “her boys” Krauthammer and Krugman yet, please do.
But add another pundit name to the list of those piling on Obama right now. Newsweek’s Robert J. Samuelson has a few choice words for how Obama is performing right now.
To those who believe that Barack Obama is a different kind of politician — more honest, more courageous — please don’t examine his administration’s budget. If you do, you may sadly conclude that he resembles presidents stretching back to John Kennedy in one crucial respect. He won’t tax voters for all the government services they want. That’s the main reason we’ve run budget deficits in 43 of the past 48 years.
Samuelson believes our nation needs tough love or to “get real” about what we’ve done to ourselves. Fair enough. We’re due. He also believes that we aren’t honest about what government can provide to us and what we’re willing to pay. All good. But Samuelson notes a real leader devoted to responsibility and cleaning up messes he “didn’t inherit” (BTW, that bothers me, was BO NOT a senator and vote on some of this stuff?) should tell the truth. He faults Obama because Obama, claiming to “put away childish things” is unwilling to engage in “straight talk”.
Obama is a great pretender. He repeatedly says he is doing things that he isn’t, trusting his powerful rhetoric to obscure the difference. He has made “responsibility” a personal theme; the budget’s cover line is “A New Era of Responsibility.” He says the budget begins “making the tough choices necessary to restore fiscal discipline.” It doesn’t.
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If Obama were “responsible,” he would conduct a candid conversation about the role of government. Who deserves support and why? How big can government grow before higher taxes and deficits harm economic growth? Although Obama claims to be doing this, he hasn’t confronted entitlement psychology — the belief that government benefits once conferred should never be revoked.————-
It would also be “responsible” for Obama to acknowledge the big gamble in his budget. National security has long been government’s first job. In his budget, defense spending drops from 20 percent of the total in 2008 to 14 percent in 2016, the smallest share since the 1930s. The decline presumes a much safer world. If the world doesn’t cooperate, deficits will grow.The gap between Obama rhetoric and Obama reality transcends the budget, as do the consequences. In 2009, the stock market has declined 23.68 percent (through March 6), says Wilshire Associates. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page blames Obama’s policies for all of the fall. That’s unfair; the economy’s deterioration was a big cause. Still, Obama isn’t blameless.
Below, Samuelson echoes Krauthammer’s assertion that Obama’s politics are fundamentally dishonest (see RRRA’s story!!).
Confidence (too little) and uncertainty (too much) define this crisis. Obama’s double talk reduces the first and raises the second. He says he’s focused on reviving the economy, but he’s also using the crisis to advance an ambitious long-term agenda. The two sometimes collide. The $787 billion “stimulus” is weaker than necessary, because almost $200 billion for extended projects (high-speed rail, computerized medical records) take effect after 2010. When Congress debates Obama’s sweeping health-care and energy proposals, industries, regions and governmental philosophies will clash. Will this improve confidence? Reduce uncertainty?
Samuelson ends with this:
Obama thinks he can ignore these blatant inconsistencies. Like many smart people, he believes he can talk his way around problems. Maybe. He’s helped by much of the media, which seem so enthralled with him that they don’t see glaring contradictions. During the campaign, Obama said he would change Washington’s petty partisanship; he also advocated a highly partisan agenda. Both claims could not be true. The media barely noticed; the same obliviousness persists. But Obama still runs a risk: that his overworked rhetoric loses its power and boomerangs on him.
Wow, Krauthammer, Krugman and Samuelson all agree. There’s something fishy going on with “the one we’ve been waiting for.” Smells like politics as usual.
Lastly, you know, when you sell yourself as a messiah, you’d better damn well walk on water or at least be able to tread it.
by Ronald Scott
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