Obama's Plan to Win Reelection
The word from the White House: No more Mr. Nice Guy. For real this time.
By David Corn | March/April 2012 Issue
MotherJones
[Editor's note: This article is adapted from David Corn's new book, Showdown: The Inside Story of Obama's Fight to Save His Presidency [1]. Also read the inside story [2] of the tense White House night during the bin Laden raid.
It was the spring of 2011, and Barack Obama was preparing for a Big Speech about the deficit. He wanted to counter the draconian budget plan [3] released by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that slashed government programs and ended the Medicare guarantee. In a brainstorming session with top aides, he said he'd been thinking about his recent trip to Chile [4].
"I'm going to other parts of the world and they're showing me tremendous investments in infrastructure and innovations in education," Obama told them. "They're willing to spend money on that. The Republican budget reflects a fundamental pessimism. It says that to get the deficit in line, we can't afford to be as visionary as these countries, and we can't be optimistic because they're not willing to let an extra penny come from high-income people." Smaller nations were aiming bigger.
Obama had a lot of pent-up passion. He'd just come through weeks of brutal budget negotiations that had resulted in $38.5 billion in cuts [5]. Now, with a government shutdown averted, Obama felt the time had come to get tough. He wanted to draw lines and call out the Republicans.
The speech he gave on April 13 [6] slammed the GOP for painting a downer picture of the country's future: "It's a vision that says if our roads crumble and our bridges collapse, we can't afford to fix them. If there are bright young Americans who have the drive and the will but not the money to go to college, we can't afford to send them…Worst of all, this is a vision that says even though Americans can't afford to invest in education at current levels, or clean energy, even though we can't afford to maintain our commitment on Medicare and Medicaid, we can somehow afford more than $1 trillion in new tax breaks for the wealthy. Think about that."
(More here.)
By David Corn | March/April 2012 Issue
MotherJones
[Editor's note: This article is adapted from David Corn's new book, Showdown: The Inside Story of Obama's Fight to Save His Presidency [1]. Also read the inside story [2] of the tense White House night during the bin Laden raid.
It was the spring of 2011, and Barack Obama was preparing for a Big Speech about the deficit. He wanted to counter the draconian budget plan [3] released by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that slashed government programs and ended the Medicare guarantee. In a brainstorming session with top aides, he said he'd been thinking about his recent trip to Chile [4].
"I'm going to other parts of the world and they're showing me tremendous investments in infrastructure and innovations in education," Obama told them. "They're willing to spend money on that. The Republican budget reflects a fundamental pessimism. It says that to get the deficit in line, we can't afford to be as visionary as these countries, and we can't be optimistic because they're not willing to let an extra penny come from high-income people." Smaller nations were aiming bigger.
Obama had a lot of pent-up passion. He'd just come through weeks of brutal budget negotiations that had resulted in $38.5 billion in cuts [5]. Now, with a government shutdown averted, Obama felt the time had come to get tough. He wanted to draw lines and call out the Republicans.
The speech he gave on April 13 [6] slammed the GOP for painting a downer picture of the country's future: "It's a vision that says if our roads crumble and our bridges collapse, we can't afford to fix them. If there are bright young Americans who have the drive and the will but not the money to go to college, we can't afford to send them…Worst of all, this is a vision that says even though Americans can't afford to invest in education at current levels, or clean energy, even though we can't afford to maintain our commitment on Medicare and Medicaid, we can somehow afford more than $1 trillion in new tax breaks for the wealthy. Think about that."
(More here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home