All the Rhetoric Without the Details?
During the campaign, Barack Obama thrilled crowds with his platitude-filled rhetoric. Pundits from both sides of the aisle noticed that his soaring speeches lacked details. If you believe this post on the NY Times’ Caucus blog, it sounds like he’s planning on doing the same thing with his budget plan:
Forget the usual detailed documents, cost estimates and announcement fanfare that capital watchers expect for the unveiling of major initiatives. President-elect Barack Obama and his advisers suggested on Friday that he has provided the “framework” of a plan in recent public remarks; now Congress, coordinating with the Obama team, will flesh it out.
Mr. Obama and his advisers “wanted to set the broad outline and, very smartly, want Congress to sort of fill in some of the details,” Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said in an interview. “It just makes sense. There’s a lot of knowledge here on the Hill.”
While one Obama adviser said an actual plan could yet be presented, another said “the only paper you’re going to see is the legislation”, once the House and Senate write it.
In other words, Obamanomics is…a fill-in-the-blank quiz for Congress? Please explain to me how that’s leadership. Please tell me what President-Elect Obama’s priorities are besides spending money at an unprecedented, unsustainable rate.
President-Elect Obama is the most risk-averse politician I’ve ever seen. He’s even worse than Jimmy Carter, which I didn’t think possible. Now he’s planning on issuing his budget that doesn’t contain details. He’s telling Congress to fill in the blanks. Is that because he wants them to take the hit if something doesn’t work? Is President-Elect Obama planning on stepping out of the way and letting Congress take the criticism?
Another possibility is that he’s omitting the details to avoid the media’s criticism. It isn’t likely that the Washington Post or the NY Times would excoriate him if he provided details. That said, it’s entirely likely that serious-minded bloggers would’ve scrutinized his economic plan had he provided the details.
Technorati Tags: Budget, Obamanomics, Budget Blueprint, Spending Increases, Deficits, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, Congress
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
January 10th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Even though Barack Obama is not yet president, it’s already become obvious that everything is his fault. The economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and global warming.
When Palin becomes president in 2012, America will enter it’s golden age, but until then, we have to put up with the failure that will be the next 4 years because I’m from the future and know what will happen.
January 10th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Yeah Gary, how can you blame an empty suit for anything?