10:06am: Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval

Hoppy’s Commentary for Wednesday

The reaction of Republican leaders to President Obama’s budget was to denounce it as a “political document,” as though any spending proposal out of Washington would be anything else. 

Of course it’s a partisan document, and for two reasons: it reflects the political priorities of the President and it makes wildly unrealistic expectations about how much the economy will grow and where cuts will come in the future.

Did Republicans not notice that this is an election year?

At least the GOP now has, on paper, the President’s campaign plan: raise taxes on the “rich,” spend even more money we don’t have on pet projects, and sell it all under the banner of “we’re making some progress… let’s keep it going.”

Strategically, it’s solid. 

America, desperate for economic improvement, might take the mild recovery as evidence that Obama’s Keynesian economic plans are working.  So, when Obama goes to a northern Virginia community college to talk about the importance of “investments,” (that is, spending $2.7 billion on a new job training program), voters might just buy in.

Nevermind that we already have any number of jobs programs.  The power of the incumbency gives the President the bully pulpit to argue that if we just had this one more jobs program, we’d be in better shape.

Additionally, the President can, and does, chalk up all of his proposed tax increases to “fairness.”  My goodness, is anyone against fairness?  A Wall Street Journal editorial Tuesday pointed out that the three percent of taxpayers who are not paying their fair share “pay more in income taxes that the rest of the 97 percent.”

The President, who was elected in 2008 under the guise of bringing people together, now realizes that a better strategy for 2012 is to foster envy and resentment of the successful.  It’s a kinder, gentler version of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The spiraling debt could and should be Obama’s Achilles heel.  The national debt has grown by roughly $5 trillion, to over $15 trillion, during his first term.  As the Journal points out, “The budget projections will exceed $1 trillion in 2012 for the fourth straight year, meaning Mr. Obama won’t meet his promise to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term.”

The reason this doesn’t seem to matter to many voters is that we don’t see the direct impact of it.  Interest rates are still extremely low and, so far, all this borrowing and printing of money has not triggered excessive inflation.

As Alfred E. Newman says, “What, me worry?”

Some Obama acolytes may even believe the pleasant fiction in the President’s budget that forecasts dramatically rising revenues and spending reductions.  In defense of Obama, that line could have been cut and pasted from President Bush’s budget documents.

President Obama might just be able to pull this off.  The country’s entitlement expansion casts a wide net.  Throw in a growth rate that is anemic, but “better than it was.”  Contrast yourself with a rich investment banker opponent who argues that corporations are people, and you may be able to parlay our country’s critical crossroads into a political victory.

The country won’t be better for it, but Republicans will have to share the blame for knowing exactly what the President envisions and being unable to stop it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





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