Here’s the video, you decide for yourself.

Dennis Kucinich asks the key question.

Today, President Obama made what would have been an excellent speech about the budget and the economy if he had made it at least a year ago.

Unfortunately in this address he took the same tone that has proved to be so damaging  to his negotiating position throughout his term in office.  He asked for perfectly reasonable and moderate steps and then cut his own feet out from under him by adding that he is willing to negotiate.

If you must add in that phrase, then you at least need to start by asking for the near impossible.  If Obama had asked for repeal of the Bush Tax Cuts before June of this year is over, he could have said, but I am willing to negotiate.

Talking about people clinging to silly ideas, the President still believes that if he presents a reasonable proposal, he will be met with a reasonable proposal from the other side.  The Republicans have even given the President a lesson in negotiation.  The House Republicans have just presented a budget plan that would have been unthinkable for even George W. Bush to propose.  I didn’t even hear them say they would be willing to negotiate.

Obama keeps reminding us that in previous times of  dire stress this country has always come together to find a solution.   He fails to mention what is different this time.  This time, he is the leader that must make it happen.  If he fails to lead us to a responsible way out of our mess, then history will note that the big difference this time is that we were not able to find a leader who knew how to lead.

Read Introducing the people’s budget by Rep. Michael Honda (D-Calif.) for a teaser on a better way to fix the budget problems of the federal government.

We make the tax code fair, asking the wealthiest individuals, corporations hiding money overseas, oil companies raking in record profits and Wall Street banks that gambled away our money to pay their fair share. We fix roads, bridges and waterways, we build a world-class high-speed rail system and broadband, we end our addiction to oil and the endless wars that come with it, we meet our obligations to seniors and we educate our children for the global workforce. Our budget does all this while eliminating the deficit, cutting nearly $1 trillion in waste, and reducing debt burden.

April 18, 2011

I found a link to a summary of the actual proposal.

Thanks to The Wall Street Journal for bringing the Rolling Stone article The Real Housewives of Wall Street to my attention.  The subtitle of the story is “Why is the Federal Reserve forking over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs?”

The final paragraph sums it up:

As America girds itself for another round of lunatic political infighting over which barely-respirating social program or urgently necessary federal agency must have their budgets permanently sacrificed to the cause of billionaires being able to keep their third boats in the water, it’s important to point out just how scarce money isn’t in certain corners of the public-spending universe. In the coming months, when you watch Republican congressional stooges play out the desperate comedy of solving America’s deficit problems by making fewer photocopies of proposed bills, or by taking an ax to budgetary shrubberies like NPR or the SEC, remember Christy Mack and her fancy new carriage house. There is no belt-tightening on the other side of the tracks. Just a free lunch that never ends.