Obama Doubles Down on Stupidity

At some point during the four years of this administration, Barack Obama is going to have to realize that speeches oozing with partially-disguised partisan rhetoric and condescension cannot supplant actual achievement. And sooner or later, after a full year of complete Democrat control of the federal government, he will have to find a new excuse for his shortcomings.

The usual sycophants are doing their best to play up Obama’s State of the Union speech last night by fawning over his so-called captivating oratory. But at some point, Obama will have to move beyond the 2008 election cycle and actually do something that is noteworthy as an executive. With one year under his belt, he has only managed to sign one significant piece of legislation – a bill that has done next to nothing for the economy while increasing our debt by over a trillion dollars. The amount of waste is the only remarkable aspect of this particular bit of legislation known as “stimulus.”

However, as predicted by many, Obama delivered yet another rather disingenuous shot at the prior administration of George W. Bush. When speaking about debts and the current trend of trillion-dollar annual deficits, Obama naturally blamed his predecessor. While doing so, he forgot to mention that it was he who also voted for the $700 billion TARP bill in the fall of 2008, when he was still a junior senator from Illinois. And he forgot to mention that it was a Democrat Congress that held the purse strings for the past three years. Never mind the fact that a lot of the debt accrued was due to recovery from the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001 and the cost of fighting two wars.

In other words, a majority of the debt was not a result of wasted government hand-outs and vote-buying programs. The money was not squandered on Utopian fantasies that never pan out. Much of it was spent on national security and war efforts – also known as legitimate federal powers.

Strangely though, Obama cited the Medicare prescription drug program as one of the causes of our increased debt. Then, in the next breath, he claimed that a new government health care program will actually reduce deficits.

His duplicity is practically unrivaled.

Much of Obama’s speech followed that same pattern: He wants to create jobs by passing “green energy” legislation – most likely meaning “cap-and-trade” – which includes taxing businesses. He wants banks to start lending more money even as he pushes for a new tax on banks. He wants to reduce federal deficits and debt by increasing spending and expanding the federal government, while also increasing taxes on the “rich,” which history has shown actually reduces revenues to the federal government. He said he thinks everyone should have a world-class education, but wants the federal government to pay for it – which means (for everyone who does not have that level of education) taxpayers, or China, will be footing the bill yet again.

We can’t grow the economy by further taxing banks and the “rich” – who happen to be business owners and investors. We can’t create jobs by taxing businesses for natural carbon emissions. We can’t improve health care by asking an incompetent federal government to heavily regulate it. We can’t reduce our debt by increasing our spending.

Obama said we need common sense, but he’s either ignorant of the truth or he intentionally defies it.

Talking points that represent failed policies and supposedly helped him get elected were simply repeated for his first State of the Union address. It was more of the same…staying the course. But if he truly believes his own rhetoric and insists on implementing his stated (and statist) agenda, and thinks the country is behind him, then all he needs to do is ask his fellow Democrats to help him get the legislation passed. However, for an entire year, he has done nothing but fall flat on his face and then blame his opposition.

What does it say about our citizenry that a man who cannot lead a bunch of political hacks in Washington – the majority of which belong to his Party – can continue to dupe about half of the voting public?

Even if Obama’s speeches really were impressive oratory (which is a real stretch of the imagination if one actually listens to what’s being said), they become less and less inspiring every day when nothing meaningful is accomplished in our federal government. Surely the citizenry can at least recognize the difference between merely talking about “reform” and actually doing some “reforming.” To date, Obama has almost exclusively done the former and left the rest of the work to his equally inept cohorts.

“Less is more” could not have been taken more literally by this current administration. That apparently includes everything from political innovation to federal revenues.

Last night, Obama doubled down on stupidity. Regularly doing so will inevitably lead people to believe that you’re stupid. We’ll have to wait for the final verdict, but as of right now, patience within the electorate is wearing a bit thin. Speeches can only get you so far. Eventually you need to live up to the hype – whether it’s regarding your political savvy, your charisma, or your overall intelligence.

A year of failure and disappointment was adequately summed up by a night of blame, excuses, and promising to fail and disappoint even more this year.

But hey…Obama sure is a smooth talker, isn’t he?

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