Obama Checks Out

I live in a town knee-deep in bull right now. Some folks say it's always this way. To me this month seems exceptional.

Two weeks ago President Obama delivered his 2011 budget proposal and in doing so abdicated leadership on what will become the defining national issue of the next ten years, barring an unforeseen military conflict. Since ballooning the federal deficit to levels not seen since the 1940s with a stimulus package chock-full of money for his campaign-promised pet projects passed off as emergency spending, Obama has begun preaching the need for fiscal responsibility, most recently in his State of the Union address. I have remained cautiously optimistic listening to these pronouncements, hoping that one of the most level-headed, high-profile politicians I've ever encountered would put our money where his mouth is.

Instead, the administration delivered disingenuous pile of modest proposals that do nearly nothing to address the spending giants that will one day soon eat our lunch: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and defense. Obama's proposals stick to the same-old tiny area of the budget which is apparently the only refuge of politicians who wish to appear fiscally responsible without the character necessary to risk their seats: non-defense discretionary spending. He hopes to cut funding for energy assistance for the poor, community service grants, the EPA, and Pell grants. He suggests freezing domestic discretionary spending and federal civilian employee salaries. The lion's share of the savings he proposes won't take effect until 2016, when he is conveniently assured not to be president. Calling this a hill of beans is an overstatement. It appears Obama took one look at the difficult recommendations of his own bipartisan commission on budget reform and then threw them in the trash. One look is generous.

This month could have been and should have been a defining moment for the Obama Presidency. The last three years, more than any time in our nation's history, we have seen the importance of the United States economy to the stability of the global economy. The US economy cannot function without properly functioning government, and our government is headed for financial ruin. This could have been the time when President Obama chose to put aside party politics and provide the leadership on this issue we desperately lack. With noble indifference to the consequences for his political future, he could have laid forth what this country needs: a redefinition of entitlement. A brave, bold, new approach to the social contract between Americans and their government, with an eye towards sustainability above all.

But Obama checked out, and we are now left to hope for the Republican budget proposal coming in the Spring. It's not looking good. Recently House Republicans have offered some cost-cutting ideas of their own, which amount to a handful of cultural hot potatoes which are worth much more in Republican base political capital than they are in actual dollars. House Republicans passed a bill last week cutting funding for PBS, Planned Parenthood, health-care reform, the ability of the EPA to regulate global warming, network neutrality, the SEC... all of it unlikely to make it into law and none of it worth talking about in the grand scheme of balancing the budget. These actions don't give me a lot of hope for the coming months.

I suppose I should mention it is possible the administration chose not to make a big, bold move with this budget anticipating that whatever they lead with would instantly be beaten to shreds by the GOP. Their strategy could be to lead with something modest and then put Congress on the line for fighting the war and coming up with a bipartisan solution—something like the tactics used in the beginning of the health care reform debate. If this is their thinking, I find the administration's belief that it is completely incapable of leading a bipartisan effort just as disheartening. Especially after Obama has spoken so eloquently of his desire and our ability to accomplish such things.

From beyond the Beltway though we can hear voices claiming that change is possible, that a bipartisan effort for honest, authentic, sustainable, effective, workable reform is still within our grasp. Here is a quote from Indiana governor Mitch Daniels in his recent speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, speaking about the dire need for bipartisan fiscal reform:

Here I wish to be very plainspoken: It is up to us to show, specifically, the best way back to greatness, and to argue for it with all the passion of our patriotism. But, should the best way be blocked, while the enemy draws nearer, then someone will need to find the second best way. Or the third, because the nation's survival requires it.

Purity in martyrdom is for suicide bombers. King Pyrrhus is remembered, but his nation disappeared. Winston Churchill set aside his lifetime loathing of Communism in order to fight World War II. Challenged as a hypocrite, he said that when the safety of Britain was at stake, his "conscience became a good girl." We are at such a moment. I for one have no interest in standing in the wreckage of our Republic saying "I told you so" or "You should've done it my way."

We must be the vanguard of recovery, but we cannot do it alone. We have learned in Indiana, big change requires big majorities. We will need people who never tune in to Rush or Glenn or Laura or Sean. 

I hope someone is listening. It appears this town is not.

Sources: WaPo 1 | WaPo 2 | NYT 1 | NYT 2 | NYT 3 | The Atlantic | ABC News | FactCheck.org 1 | FactCheck.org 2 
Image: timtom.ch