Obama wrapped up his 55 minute press conference moments ago. I have to give credit to him, he did a brilliant job. He really did. His handlers did an outstanding job of framing substantive progressive talking points into palatable explanations. Kudos to Axelrod, Plouffer and Daley for brilliantly laying out his strategy for him to present. They must have taken him off the meds and barred Valerie Jarrett from the prep room conversation. From a progressive perspective he gave the best press conference of his presidency, and loaded up his supporters/advocates with exceptional talking points.
The president came across as sincere, understanding, and pragmatic. The previous nasty divisive rhetoric was dropped, and instead replaced with complimentary descriptives of Speaker Boehner and the opposing coalition. He stated that ALL SIDES agree not raising the debt ceiling is completely out of the question and both he and Boehner would never allow the country to default. He painted the narrative so well that any collapse at this point will lay solidly at the feet of the Republicans. Well played. Brilliantly well-played.
He outlined his position on raising taxes to be necessary and prudent, and again committed to the principle point that lower and middle class wage earners should not bear any financial burden. He stated that any tax increases he is proposing would not be in effect until 2013, so he appropriately eliminated any counter talking point of “raising taxes during a recessionary time”. He also took ownership of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid reforms being needed to insure long-term financial viability. He stated that his position is to extend the payroll tax holiday after it expires in order to further assist lower-income families.
In addition he surprisingly admitted that the bulk of the “stimulus” money was used to stop state and local government workers from being laid off, and now the stimulus has run out the public sector payrolls are contracting because they are no longer funded. He said while he would like to re-stimulate the States again with more federal spending he knows that Congress will not support any further spending on behalf of the public sector. Therefore he predicted that further layoffs will be evident in the public sector and unemployment will necessarily continue to increase.
He outlined his belief that a large stimulus plan to build infrastructure would be good for the overall economy, but that Washington DC does not have the willingness to write another large jobs bill for billions more in spending. So in essence, he is handing the economic conditions and the unemployment squarely off to the Republican controlled House of Representatives. If he had his way he would continue jobs bills funded by long-term borrowing. But, pragmatically he knows it is not possible to find support.
Obama outlined the case for increasing taxes on “millionaires and billionaires”, and “corporate jet owners”, and insured the press that a deal on the debt ceiling was only a matter of Speaker Boehner being able to deliver the votes. The Democrat work is done, it is just up to Boehner and his coalition to sign the deal and get on to other business. See how easy that is? And just to be sure he reiterated that he will not sign any bill that is short term. He will veto any 30, 60, 90 or even 180 day extension. The “American people are better than that”, “we do not run our finances month to month or quarter to quarter”, we are a nation of prideful patriots who tackle long-term issues and establish long-term solutions. [Ducking of course that pesky fact the Democrats have not had a budget in two years, but whose to let a little substantive fact get in the way of a keenly well prepared talking points:….. I digress]
I continue to push congressional leaders for the largest possible deal,” he said from the White House. “It is possible for us to construct a package that would be balanced, would share sacrifice [and] would involve both parties taking on their sacred cows.” For Democrats that means modifying programs like Social Security. For Republicans, that means bringing in new tax revenues.
“I’ve been hearing from my Republican friends for some time it is a moral imperative to tackle our debt and deficits in a serious way,” Mr. Obama said. “What I’ve said to them is, let’s go.”
The president said today he would not accept a smaller, short-term deal. “We might as well do it now,” he said. “Pull off the band aid. Eat our peas.”
“I want to be crystal clear: Nobody has talked about increasing taxes now, nobody has talked about increasing taxes next year,” he said. “What we have talked about is that starting in 2013 that we have gotten rid of some of these egregious loopholes that are benefiting corporate jet owners or oil companies at a time where they’re making billions of dollars of profits.”
“I do not see a path to a deal if they don’t budge, period,”
“And so if in fact Mitch McConnell and John Boehner are sincere, and I believe they are, that they don’t want to see the U.S. government default, then they’re going to have to compromise just like Democrats are going to have to compromise; just like I have shown myself willing to compromise.”
He really did do a remarkably good job in both content, manner of delivery, tone and practicality. Consider this a big “Check” in the political chess.
The only thing he did not mention, nor did the press ask why it was conspicuously absent, was SPENDING. Spending cuts were totally framed out of the press conference. He did so remarkably well that not one person I noted caught on to the fact he totally avoided any discussion of spending cuts. By focusing his efforts completely on the opponents issues he effectively used the bully pulpit for about an hour and avoided the big issue that any fiscal conservative would worry about.
“What are you going to cut”? ((((crickets)))) Never came up. AT ALL.
Well done Mr. President. Very well done.
