Would the REAL Obama agenda please stand up!
On Monday morning the White House released a plan for:
· Doubling the Child and Dependant Care Tax Credit for families making under $85,000;
· Limiting student federal loan payments;
· Expanding tax credits to match retirement savings; and
· Expanding assistance to families caring for elderly relatives.
All of which cost money.
But by Monday evening, the New York Times reported that President Obama wants to freeze spending on many domestic programs for three years, then tie future program growth to the inflation rate.
Talk about trying to have it both ways. So which is it?
Is the economy so bad that we need new or expanded spending programs? Or was last year’s spending spree so massive and irresponsible that we have to freeze the budget?
This is like going out for a double helping of chocolate fudge brownies with ice cream, to much fanfare, only to then head over to Weight Watchers, again with much fanfare?
And don’t forget that the president also wants another stimulus bill—to try and create jobs that the first $787 billion stimulus bill didn’t create.
President Obama has rapidly been losing the respect and support of the American people. Maybe it’s because he seems to want everything both ways.
· He wants credit for openness and transparency, but supports back room, closed-door health care deals.
· He wants to be the post-partisan president, but supports go-it-alone Democratic health care reform.
The list of this both-ways agenda is getting enormous—and very confusing.
It’s perfectly all right for the president to claim the government isn’t doing enough for working families—though I would disagree with that assessment—and propose new programs to solve the perceived shortfalls.
And it’s perfectly all right to say the government is spending too much and we need to freeze current spending levels—fine by me, though cutting would be better.
Obama just can’t do both. And if he keeps trying to get away with it, don’t be surprised if people start referring to him as “Both-Ways” Obama.