Presidential Promises and Pretenses

Last year, Obama said the deficit, expected to be 11 percent of gross domestic product this year, would fall to a "sustainable" 3 percent by the end of his first term. His new budget projections, even with the benefit of optimistic assumptions, indicate that he will never reach that goal even if he serves two terms and that the deficit will rise above 5 percent of GDP after he leaves office.

On Friday, the president blamed the economy for his fiscal incontinence, saying "most of the increases in this year's budget" were "a consequence of the automatic stabilizers that kick in because of this enormous recession." But as Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., noted, legislation signed by Obama increased domestic discretionary spending by 84 percent.

In addition to the health care transparency and spending restraint he has failed to deliver, Obama has broken promises to reduce the influence of special-interest lobbyists, to refrain from raising taxes on households earning less than $250,000 a year, to cut earmarks to 1994 levels, to take a more modest view of executive power and the "state secrets" privilege, to close Guantanamo by last month, to end medical marijuana raids, to allow five days of public review before signing bills and to recognize the Armenian genocide. PolitiFact.com counts 15 broken promises so far, and its standards are conservative

In his SOTU Address, Obama bemoaned "a deficit of trust -- deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years." He blamed the public's "disappointment" and "cynicism" on powerful lobbyists, reckless bankers, highly paid CEOs, superficial TV pundits and mud-slinging politicians. Conspicuously missing from the list: a president who breaks promises while pretending he isn't.