Obama's Missing Message

Ericka Andersen | February 05, 2009 9:18 AM

While President Obama continues his attempt gain the support of the American people and votes of Senate Republicans (and moderate Dems) for the $900 billion economic stimulus package, he omits the most important component of getting America back on track. Personal responsibility. It's a simple concept that is -- yes, sometimes difficult -- but why isn't this a main message coming from the White House?

In his Washington Post op/ed today, Obama writes about "what Americans expect from Washington" and how they voiced that by "vot[ing] resoundingly for change" in the last election. Government intervention, bailouts and artificial stimulation of the economy are nothing new. But Obama does a good job of re-gifting in shiny wrapping paper.

He notes that "everyday, our economy gets sicker" but fails to mention the reason we are ailing is that we didn't take care of ourselves. He writes that those projects included in the stimulus "are the actions Americans expect us to take without delay." But, Rasmussen reports only 37% of American voters support the stimulus as is. He is most definitely not speaking for the majority.

His irony is transparent:

So we have a choice to make. We can once again let Washington's bad habits stand in the way of progress. Or we can pull together and say that in America, our destiny isn't written for us but by us. We can place good ideas ahead of old ideological battles, and a sense of purpose above the same narrow partisanship...

Obama continues to disparage partisanship but won't acknowledge that those who oppose the stimulus are thus far the only bipartisan part of this legislation. While he implements words like "crisis", "catastrophic", and "dire", never missing an opportunity to reference the Great Depression, where is the emphasis on reviving ourselves, as well? That should be a major component of his message but I have yet to hear of anything more than how government is going to save the day.

Thomas Jefferson said, "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

Our Republicans are standing strong. Our moderate Democrats are holding out as well. Strip out the billions of dollars of unncessary spending and then let's talk.