I wouldn’t say that I quite agree with Nancy Pelosi’s observation that President Obama possesses near-biblical levels of humbling self-restraint and perseverance, but I will readily admit that these repetitive press conferences are trying my mere-mortal patience.
It only took a few minutes for the President, broken record-like, to mention the immoral excesses of millionaires, billionaires, and corporate jet owners. Seriously? I thought we had roundly and soundly debunked this class warfare-fueled jab at the wealthy? It's mind-boggling that he is still using this as a political selling point - although he did admit that "I generally don't watch what is said about me on cable television," all the while blaming Congress for being out of touch with the American public.
ABC's Jake Tapper asked the President what actual changes to entitlements the President would be willing to make, as the President is not willing to "restructure the progam in the ways that we've seen coming out of the House." The President kept insisting that "we are willing to look at all those approaches" and that "I've laid out some criteria," but also said that "I'm not going to get into specifics." The American people want specifics from their President. Obama maintains the ridiculous posture that Congress needs to stop thinking about their next elections and that they need to present him with a budget, but refuses to get into the nitty-gritty details himself. Why? Because he wants to get re-elected.
When asked whether he thinks a balanced budget amendment amounts to a "serious plan," the President proclaimed that "we don't need a Constitutional amendment to do our jobs." Which is a good point, because he doesn't seem to need the Constitution to do his job, either.
Obama insisted that "we're not Greece, we're not Portugal," but those countries aren't in the situation they're in because of failures to raise their debt ceilings. They are in those situations because of unsustainable public sector spending and entitlements. The President blamed our cataclysmic debt on a whole host of things like a recession that "required" a recovery act and stimulus spending, two wars "we haven't paid for" (wait... didn't he start a war, unapproved by Congress, in a country in which we have no direct interests? Yeah.), and I'm preeeetty sure he claimed that "tax cuts" are "job-killers." Keynesian, much?
