President Obama announcing his Win the Future initiative.
It's got Reaganesqe optimism, that's for sure. In fact, its an extra big Thanksgiving Day helping of optimism. "Morning in America" was just for a day, and not even a whole one. The future, however, stretches way way out there. Take that and double it. Not only a future, but a future of winning!
Brimming with enough optimism to encroach on summer sunlight, the president's budget is being sold as a plan to "out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world, tapping the creativity and imagination of our people." As of today, we are losing on all three fronts and the creativity and imagination of our people is mainly used on entertainment and financial products. However, this state affairs need not remain so, the administration tells us. The White House is consistently on message on this matter.
The president's budget slogan reflects a White House that is in full reelect mode, and the budget is one as well. But strictly on the merits of sloaganeering, it seems a rather hollow way to avoid talking about the twin proverbial 800-lb. silverbacks in the political room: the crisis in unemployment/underemployment and the housing crisis. When you read through the budget, it is a clear the numbers were designed around the slogan, and not around the gorillas. Certainly, this reflects the current state of affairs: With Republicans in control of the House, there is no chance this president will be given any lattitude to tackle the current crises aggressively and effectively. So, in what basically amounts to a throwing up of the hands, the president has designed a political strategy whose goal is to convince the American people to...ahem...hope.
One day, we will all be super-educated and therefore able to outwit everyone else in some sort of global game. One day, we will build stuff again, like bridges and tunnels. One day, we will become a great manufacturing power again. But all of the things that allowed us to do these things in the past, like strong unions, industrial policy, inexpensive education, heavy regulation, and taxation that redistributed wealth downward will not be found in this budget because those things aren't on the table in any branch of government. What is on the table is a future, a future where everything will work out. We will win! Hooray for optimism!
As for today and tomorrow, expect more losing. The things that are on everyone's mind today, jobs and housing, aren't of any concern to our political class. At the president's most recent news conference, here is what he said about the crisis in housing:
We have a number of steps to encourage loan modifications, to encourage banks to take steps that would alleviate some of that burden and start clearing some of those homes on the market, but it's a slow process. It's a five -- you're talking about $5 trillion worth of product out there. And I mentioned that I had this conversation with Warren Buffett a couple weeks ago when I was giving him the Medal of Freedom, and his point was, look, I'm bullish about this economy; when it comes to the housing market, it just takes some time to work itself out because we had such a housing bubble. We had so much construction, particularly in certain states that are harder hit than others. That was then compounded by the overall recession. And it's going to take some time for the housing market to improve. But we're continuing to take a range of steps to try to strengthen that process of recovery in the housing market.
So basically, they've taken a number of steps which haven't made any difference. That, and this thing is just going to have to work itself out. A billionaire told him so. So you see, when it comes to winning the future of the roof over your head, you're just going to have to be patient and let things work out. And by the way, you're going to be waiting a long time. Shrug shoulders. Throw up hands. Win the future!
What "Win the Future" is about is feeling better about tomorrow because today sucks so bad. Which, I suppose, is better than saying "today sucks and there is nothing I can do about it." But perhaps by trying to turn the public's attention to a better tomorrow, the White House is admitting what people in the middle class are feeling: Times are tough RIGHT NOW and there is nothing anyone in Washington will do about it.