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| Cloture Club Promotes "Lite" View to SOTU: 2012 State of the Union Drinking Game |
Yesterday, the Senate voted 74-16 to confirm John M. Gerrard to be United States District Judge for the District of Nebraska.
At 8:20, senators will gather in the chamber and then proceed to the House for a Joint Session of Congress. At 9 PM, President Barack Obama will deliver his State of the Union address the Joint Session of Congress.
Tim Phillips, President of Americans for Prosperity has shared his expectations of Obama remarks: "We know we can expect much of the usual rhetoric: lofty promises about creating jobs, governing with responsibility, and making everything fair. But the problem is, Obama's policies don't match his rhetoric. His policies have burdened small businesses with more regulations and government red tape. He has ignored his responsibilities as a leader - allowing the Senate to go 1,000 days without even passing a budget. And when the President talks of fairness, he really means government redistributing wealth, which goes directly against everything this country was founded on."
Representative Tim Griffin (R-AR-02) expressed his low expectations of the president being able to motive his own party in the US Senate, "For the past 1,000 days, Senate Democrats have failed to pass a budget, one of the most basic responsibilities of governing. They refuse to recognize what most Arkansas families know: Developing a budget forces you to make tough decisions and prioritize where you put your money. Last year, the House passed a budget, demonstrating that we’re serious about addressing our national debt and creating a pro-growth tax code. Show you’re serious: pass a budget."
Previewing what he expects from President Obama’s State of the Union address tonight, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell spoke on the floor this morning, saying, “[I]t’s hard not to feel a sense of disappointment even before tonight’s speech is delivered. Because while we don’t yet know all of the specifics, we do know the goal. Based on what the President’s aides have been telling reporters, the goal isn’t to conquer the nation’s problems. It’s to conquer Republicans. The goal isn’t to prevent gridlock, but to guarantee it.”
Leader McConnell elaborated, “Here’s how The New York Times summed up the President’s election-year strategy in a recent article entitled ‘Obama to Turn Up Attacks on Congress in Campaign.’ Quote: ‘In terms of the president’s relationship with Congress in 2012 … the president is no longer tied to Washington, D.C.’ . . . And here’s how a White House aide described the President’s election-year strategy just a couple of weeks ago, presumably just as tonight’s speech was being drafted. Referring to past displays of bipartisanship, he said, ‘[Then] we were in a position of legislative compromise by necessity. That phase is behind us…’ So, as I see it, the message from the White House is that the President’s basically given up. He got nearly everything he wanted from Congress for the first two years of his presidency. The results are in. It’s not good. So he’s decided to spend the rest of the year trying to convince folks that the results of the economic policies he put in place are Congress’s fault, not his.”
Indeed, there have been plenty of hints that tonight’s speech will be more about setting up contrasts for the president’s campaign than for looking for policies the parties can work together on. Just yesterday Politicodescribed President Obama’s State of the Union address: “The most important 2012 campaign event so far . . . will take place Tuesday night under the guise of a governing ritual. . . . Obama will appear on Capitol Hill as a president who is virtually wiping out the space, never wide to begin with, between politicking and governing in the West Wing as Election Day nears.” The story emphasized that “nearly every aspect of daily life in his West Wing is influenced by a campaign mentality.”
That President Obama is putting the rhetoric in high gear, emphasizing contrasts over any desire to get things done, is highlighted by an announcement from the White House today. According to Politico, “Billionaire Warren Buffett's longtime secretary will be joining first lady Michelle Obama in her box at tonight's State of the Union, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer announced on Twitter. Debbie Bosanek, who has worked for Buffett for nearly two decades, has become a symbol in the White House's fight over the tax code and economic fairness. . . . ‘Warren Buffett's secretary shouldn't pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett,’ President Obama said in September, when he unveiled his American Jobs Act proposal. It's a trope that Buffett himself has repeated, as he has campaigned for higher taxes on investment income.”
Leader McConnell pointed to another piece of evidence of the White House’s campaign mentality in his remarks today. “Last week, the President had an opportunity to do something on his own about the ongoing jobs crisis. The only thing that stood in the way of the single-biggest shovel-ready infrastructure project in America was him. The Keystone pipeline was just the kind of project he’s been calling for in speeches for months. And he said no. That one could wait. Here was a project that he knew would create thousands of jobs instantly. He said no. A project that wouldn’t have cost the taxpayers a dime. He said no. . . . It all came down to one question: was the Keystone Pipeline in the national interest or not. He said no. As one columnist put it, his own standard wasn’t the national interest. It was his political interest. Americans want jobs. And this President is studying an election that took place 60 years ago to see how he can save his own. He sided with his liberal environmental base over the energy and security interests of the American people.”
As Leader McConnell summed it up, “[T]hat’s exactly what we’re now being told we can expect for the rest of the year. In last year’s state of the union, the President talked about how we need to ‘win the future.’ This year, he just wants to win the next campaign.”
For those wishing to twitter or to follow the twitter discussion using #ObamaForgets.
Tags: Washington, D.C., Barack Obama, SOTU, State of the Union Speech, Senate, no budget, 1000 days, confirmation, John M. Gerrard To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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