Was anyone surprised last night? Did he "pivot"? Did anyone think he would?
His stock in trade is handing out successful people's money to unsuccessful people. They love him for it, and there is nothing he loves more than being loved. He pulls imaginary rabbits from bottomless hats with nobody seriously questioning how the trick is done. Last night he promised to double down on his pet projects, not by "stimulating" but by "investing." Notice the grand difference? Neither did I.
Education, Infrastructure and Green Energy
It isn't unintentional that those areas are not in the private sector. They aren't businesses owned by stockholders and investors. Those are pay-offs of the most blatant sort to the unions and pols that support him.
It should be very apparent by comparison of schools across this land that quality of education is not directly correlated with dollars spent. If a school is failing, raising the funding for that school by 50% won't suddenly make the kids smarter. It will make NEA and AFT happy though.
Infrastructure spending has been demonstrated in the last two years as a very efficient means of routing federal dollars into strongholds of his power. I recounted last year my travels across the American west and the very obvious linkage between ongoing construction and jurisdictions. Tied closely to it all is the prioritization of "shovel-ready" projects. No projects are shovel-ready until they are funded. No community plans a road, bridge, public building without the means in place to complete the project. You don't hire an architect, buy land and estimate the completion date until you've got the bucks lined up.
The continuous litany of obeisance to "green energy" and all of those jobs it is going to produce seems directly counter to the over-regulation, inconsistency and punitive assessments against the oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy industries. What he does has become an over-ride to what he says finally. We have begun to understand it.
Facts Vs Obama
Finally, he throws a sop to the new Republican congress. He offers a deal. He will propose a spending freeze at current levels. He doesn't point out that current levels have risen 84% in the last two years. The Republican's minimum acceptable position has been freezing at 2008 levels and a better goal is 2006. Think back. Were we really short of government in those periods?
You simply cannot disburse more money, as he proposes while simultaneously cutting spending or reducing the deficit. He sings the same song, but most of us know the words. Even the media is catching on.
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