"President Obama - Cynic in Chief"

Sydney M. Williams

Thought of the Day (2)

“President Obama – Cynic in Chief”

July 26, 2011

While I have no great respect for Tea Party Republicans and their singular, rigid, iconoclastic focus on spending, the President last night brought a new and enhanced definition to the term cynicism.

He said that neither party is blameless, and then once again blamed President Bush. He claimed that Republican House members wanted to return domestic spending to the level under President Eisenhower, when he knows that there have been no cuts in spending proposed by either party, only cuts in the rate of spending increases. He said he was searching for a “balanced” approach (a word he used seven times in fifteen minutes,) yet there was no mention of his February budget that was rejected in the Senate 97-0, or that in his April speech about the deficit ceiling he unilaterally rejected any cuts in entitlements. He claimed “we must live within our means”, yet no reference to his past spending which has broken all records. He wants to extend the debt ceiling beyond the election of 2012, yet cited Reagan as a paragon – a President who lived through eighteen increases in the debt ceiling, or one every five months. He used poll-tested language in condemning “millionaires and billionaires,” “corporate jet owners and oil companies.” “Hedge fund managers” and the “richest corporations” came under attack from this man who ran for office as a unifier, yet has become “The Great Divider.”

Cynically, he postulated a vision of America that will incur a “deep economic crisis;” that Social Security and Veteran Benefits are at risk, if Republicans remain intransigent and if they insist on only raising the debt ceiling temporarily. He conveniently ignored the fact that the debt ceiling has always been raised temporarily. Since the President’s message of Hope has failed, he now seems to be sending a message of Fright. He claims that a failure to promptly enact the debt ceiling he wants – one that extends through November 2012 – the country’s AAA credit rating will be downgraded. I believe it will get downgraded, but not because of the debt ceiling, but because of his layering on debt at unprecedented levels.

Washington has become dysfunctional and Mr. Obama is the President, but we heard him say the blame lies everywhere, except on himself. How far we have fallen since Harry Truman put the sign in his office, “The Buck Stops Here!” In Mr. Obama’s world the buck stopped with George W. Bush.

I have listened to Presidents’ speeches for fifty years. Mr. Obama’s last night was the most egregious and cynical example of polarizing partisanship I can recall.