In his interview Tuesday evening with ABC’s Jake Tapper, President Obama was asked to reflect on the economy and his overall performance as president. Asked by Mr. Tapper how he would grade himself thus far, the president declined to give himself a grade, preferring, instead, to redirect viewers to all the work that still needs to be done, presumably by him. That is why Americans should re-elect him in 2012, in order to allow him to complete his work.ABC News' Jake Tapper's Exclusive Interview With President Obama.....
Many of us would have all to do to keep our mouths from dropping open as we sat, incredulous, at this response, but perhaps Jake Tapper’s professional journalistic training was seeing him through.
We are now at a point, with this president, when every speech, every interview, every press conference, every bus tour, is nothing but a series of distorted statements, meant to pull unthinking Americans into a shared delusion. The president is part illusionist, part hypnotist, hoping to lure the most ignorant Americans among us into his realm of unreality. He feels empowered to do this because, as he so often reminds us, “I’m the president!”
Let’s break down some of these distortions from the interview:
The jobs plan that I put forward, we
know that it will grow the economy by as much as 2 percent. We know that it
could add as many as 1.9 million jobs.
And that plan will cost
about $1.6 million per job “kept or added” in Democrat-speak. A real
bargain!
I am concerned that right now, things
in Washington are broken.
I believe, sir, that you were supposed to fix that when you were elected.
Hope and change, remember?
It seems as if too many folks are
willing to put politics ahead of what is required and making the tough choices
whether that’s reducing deficit, whether it’s putting people back to
work, whether it’s making investments that are necessary for us to become
competitive, you don’t get a sense of people all pulling together in the same
direction.
Of course, sir, you would not be putting politics ahead of what is
required, as you ride on your bus tour, campaigning rather than fixing the
problems, would you? As for reducing the deficit, reducing is when you
lower the deficit. You have done the opposite, sir. Putting people back
to work? Well, unemployment has risen to 9.1% under your administration. And
making investments for us to become competitive? No, sir, you’re using that
Keynesian economics again. Government spending doesn’t increase our
competitiveness. It simply puts us deeper into debt.
We become competitive by getting government out of our way.
What I say to the American people is
that we are moving in the right direction, it is going to take time to heal all
the problems that exist out there, the health care bill that we passed is
absolutely the right thing to do but it’s going to take awhile before it’s even
fully implemented, much less taken full effect, and you start seeing health care
inflation stabilize.
There’s that narcissism again, sir. You are still going to “heal all the
problems that exist?” We won’t hold our breath. And the health care bill is
“absolutely the right thing to do,” even though, sir, your own administration
said that the CLASS long-term care portion of the bill is unsustainable, most
Americans want Obamacare repealed, and the Supreme Court will be taking up the
question of whether the law is even constitutional? We know, just a few
glitches, sir…
That’s why the jobs bill is so
important because even as we’re doing these structural reforms that put us in a
stronger position in the long terms, we still have to help people now and the
most important thing we can do right now is to make sure we’re putting people
back to work.
Perhaps you are forgetting, sir, that you said the economy and putting people
back to work were your priorities when you were elected. But maybe you were
distracted by the stimulus bill, the healthcare bill, the financial reform bill,
your golf games, etc. We know there’s so much going
on- it’s hard to stay focused.
Well what we’ve gotten done I’m
enormously proud of and it’s making a difference, and in some cases we’ve had a
chance to actually work with the Republicans.
Yes, you certainly have a lot to be proud of, sir, though we don’t hear you
speak much about your accomplishments during your campaign tours. To be sure,
it’s hard to find time to work with Republicans when you have to spend hours
blaming them for the fact that the Democrat-controlled Senate couldn’t pass your
jobs bill.
And yet, even though we’ve gotten a
majority of senators in the Senate willing to move forward on this, because of
the filibuster, because of the rules that are set up in the Senate, those things
are blocked.
Now, sir, Harry Reid can’t change all the rules
in the Senate. Darn that Constitution!
One of the things I’m most surprised
about is hearing both from Republican members of Congress and Republican
candidates, the notion that we should return to the rules that existed on Wall
Street before the financial crisis. They want to roll back all the Wall Street
reforms we put into place as if they’ve got amnesia about how we got into this
problem in the first place.
There you go again, sir, trying to get unthinking Americans to believe that
Wall Street caused the country’s financial mess. It’s kind of you to cover for
Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Fannie and Freddie, and the Federal Reserve. No
fraternizing with greedy Wall Street people for you, sir! Unless, of course,
they can come in through the back door for a quick campaign contribution. Source