Ok, Mr. President, you delivered a goodgreat jobs speech last Thursday. Honestly, I had expected a C (or worse) on style and a D on substance, but you definitely exceeded my expectations.
You knocked it out of the park with an A+ on style complemented with a B- on substance. And you finally said & did a lot of things I've been waiting for you to say for over a year. Hey, better late than never, right?
Yes, but not so fast...
First, let me explain my own liberal expectations:
On style I had expected a C (or worse) from you because I had expected you to be all "bipartisan" & "adult" & "compromising" yet again, resulting in a speech which effectively begs for a jobs program. Instead, you chose the right path of demanding a jobs program in your speech, earning yourself a solid A+ from li'l 'ol me (yes, that is a feather in your cap, even if it is totally worthless to you). Actually, I think that the speech would have been even better if it was a touch less bipartisan, but let's chalk that up to the substance rather than the style so we don't have to quibble over the A+.
On substance I had expected a D from your speech, mostly because I figured you would make a too-little-too-late offer by proposing a huge tax-cut & deficit-cut (the proverbial pig) dressed up with a tiny jobs program (lipstick). I also figured you would again offer up Social Security & Medicare in exchange to satisfy those crazy Republicans & big campaign donors. Once again, you exceeded my expectations & earned a coveted B- by offering half your proposal in tax cuts and keeping the other half for jobs preservation/creation, which is not too too bad considering that the total proposal was almost $450B instead of the rumored $300B. And even though you stated your willingness to cut Medicare, you blew me away by not explicitly calling for a cut to Social Security (although the payroll tax cuts will probably soon weaken SS). Of course, you also agreed to increase the super-congress' deficit-cutting mandate as expected so that didn't help or hurt your grade in my book. Overall, the proposal is still too-little-too-late to solve the jobs deficit during this presidential term, but late is a lot better than never, and little is better than nothing...specially if it really is a first step as you claimed.
Once again, great speech!
So, what's my hesitation?
Before I explain, let me say that I really, really want to believe you - and believe in you - again. My heart wants to, but my mind is very, very skeptical...
First, it's hard to ignore the fact that the election is rolling around soon and many of us liberals are once bitten, twice shy. We want to know if you're for real this time or if you (& your posse: Daley, Geithner, Bernanke, Gates/Panetta, & Petraeus...hmmm!) are just playing us again to make sure we come out to support your re-election. It's true that we've got nobody else courting us for 2012, but it's also true that many of us think it's ok to be "independent" & "too busy to return your calls" for a while if we're not going to get the important stuff done anyway. (BTW, it was smooth how you framed the fast approaching election as a long, hard 14-month slog, as if it's all about the voters & not about your re-election...nicely done!)
Secondly, we all know talk is cheap. We know you're a sweeeeeet talker & weeeeeeak negotiator, so we want to see if you will actually deliver the goodsjobs, or at least fight like hell for us. This is only your opening bid and it's already way too reasonable, so I'm worried we're going to end up with almost none of the important stuff if/when you capitulate yet again.
Finally, I'm still a littlevery nervous about your willingness, even eagerness to cut Medicare & Social Security to reduce the deficit during a mega-recession/depression. I know, I know, you believe you're saving them by cutting them, but you're really cutting them by cutting them. Raising the eligibility age really is a cut.
<Rant>FYI, the whole deficit concern is just a scam by the Republicans to tie your hands on everything except tax cuts for the rich which, conveniently, never need to be paid for. WTF???
If you truly thought that the deficit was so important last year, then maybe you should have let the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010 & made sure the other "good" parts of that deal were done before the election.
And if you only recently decided that the deficit is so important, then why don't you propose raising or eliminating the SS payroll tax cap which will reduce the short term budget deficit and "strengthen" SS for the long run while distributing the cost burden more fairly. That's far better than creating the super-congress to slash our health & SS benefits to pay for Jamie Dimon's tax cut extension.
Instead, you're busy expanding the payroll tax cuts (without a corresponding increase in the payroll tax cap) knowing full well that it's going to be a Herculean task to reverse these "temporary" cuts. For a long, long time. With these tax cuts in place, SS can soon become a big, expensive subsidy rather than an earned pension. And then, it really would become vulnerable to the Republican vultures.
Next, if you really believe that health care costs are still an urgent problem, then please stop giving more of the healthcare pie to private insurance! We should be expanding Medicare eligibility to more people instead of the other way around.
And yes, the Congress is a problem, but you can't put it all on Congress when you're the President and you have a humungous gift for public speaking as well as that little veto pen.</Rant>
Anyhow, your speech was an encouraging breakthrough and despite my skepticism, I really do hope you will continue to continue to fight for us and deliver millions of jobs in the next year or so. I also hope you will seriously consider addressing some of these other "little" disagreements - including environmental & justice disagreements - in the coming months, through words & actions. Maybe you'll think I'm asking for a pony, but hey, asking for a pony is better than a taking hostages for a pony like the other guys, right?
Peace!