I’m beginning to think we need to stop making Senators into Presidents.
Not that we do it that often. JFK and Obama. That’s it for the last 60 years. LBJ was VP when he became President, so I don’t count him. When he actually was on the ballot for it, he was already a sitting President.
JFK and Obama both had huge majorities in the House and Senate. JFK kept his. Obama lost the House and is hanging on to the Senate by a thread.
But check out this comment by Speaker John Boehner:
“As I read the Constitution, the Congress writes the laws and you get to decide what you want to sign,” Boehner said, recounting what he told the president, according to two sources.
The Democrat Senate, Gang of Six or not, is out of the chat. Their plans of vague “spending cuts” and specific “revenue increases” isn’t going anywhere in time. Having not even passed a budget in two years, I’m not counting on the Senators to suddenly be leaders.
Which brings me to Obama, former Senator who, when given the choice to vote Yes or No, frequently chose “Present.”
He’s acting like a Senator with a bigger house. He’s offering nothing in the way of an actual plan. He’s insisting making people pay more in taxes, but as far as spending reductions, I haven’t seen much.
It mostly sounds like 1990 all over again when George Bush ditched his “Read my lips – No new taxes” promise to get “2 dollars of spending cuts for every 1 of tax increases.”
Remember how that worked out?
The 1991 budget deficit was supposed to have been $253 billion. Instead, it was $269 billion. The 1992 deficit was supposed to be $262 billion. Instead, it will be $314 billion. In 1990, the year before the budget agreement took effect, the deficit was only $152 billion.The budget deal was supposed to save $500 billion over five years. When the budget deal was passed, the 1991-95 deficit was projected at $770 billion. The latest Congressional Budget Office estimates place the five-year deficit at $1.426 trillion. The budget deal added at least $500 billion to the national debt; it did not reduce the debt by that amount.
The budget deficit from 1991 through 1995 will be $1.3 trillion higher than it would have been if Congress had simply remained on the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings track and had never held a budget summit. (link)
These plans aren’t cuts in actual spending! They are cuts in PROJECTED spending! Cuts in planned increases.
It’s like saying you’re on a successful diet because you’re gaining less weight than you thought you would. It’s crazy!
And Obama is negotiating. He isn’t leading. Speaker Boehner seems willing to play along, passing and proposing solutions, leaving little but a pen in Obama’s hand.
It’s risky, but it is leadership.
Obama sure isn’t showing any.
