Obama response to Ryan Plan: Political gain only

At George Washington University April 13^th, President Obama laid out his proposal for dealing with the Federal Deficit and Debt crisis.  In so doing he broke his self-imposed silence on the subject and also ignited his campaign for reelection in 2012.

The President deserves belated credit for getting off the sidelines and getting onto the field of play.  He was missing in action last fall when his Debt and Deficit Commission laid down a broad set of proposals for solving America’s long-term fiscal crisis.  And he did not engage this matter in his State of the Union address or his Budget proposal for 2012. 

It’s reasonable to conclude that he would have continued to duck the issue had not Paul Ryan, the Republican Chairman of the House Budget Committee, put his proposal on the table first. 

But a careful reading of the President’s speech makes clear that it is more an effort to define this crisis in a way to enhance his reelection in 2012 than it is an attempt to build the bridges necessary to enact measures that would avert an economic meltdown.

President Obama used much of his speech to excoriate the Republicans and Congressman Ryan.  He basically called the Ryan approach un-American.  And he did so after having invited Congressman Ryan to attend the speech.

Although not unexpected, the President’s gambit was nonetheless an opportunity for leadership that he sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.  But it was political expediency too delicious for the President and his Campaign advisors to let pass.  After all, Democrats have successfully terrified seniors for decades by alleging that the Republicans were out to destroy Social Security and Medicare.  It’s a strategy that has worked in the past.  So why not trot it out one more time?

And the depressing truth is that those millions of seniors who insist that these programs not be changed are the ones who will be ravaged by their collapse.  Here’s a case where ignorance is not bliss.

So, where does that leave us?  Ryan’s plan is veto bait, and Obama’s plan will be dead on arrival in the House.  And the required vote on extending the debt ceiling is fast approaching.

That means that we’re at impasse or we must wait to see the whites of the eyes of the Senate’s Gang of Six. I believe that the Gang of Six, three Democrats and three Republicans, is actually attempting to do what neither Ryan or Obama did—propose a set of dramatic and painful legislative proposals, based on the recommendations of the Bowles-Simpson Commission, that would actually deal with the crisis and win enough bipartisan support to be enacted.

For the nation’s sake, I hope so.  And so should you.

LeRoy Goldman

April 14, 2011

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