Much of the talk as this week of course focused on President Obama's first week and the various executive orders that he signed, and this week's Meet The Press was the encapsulation of the criticism that followed. The euphoria is over and now we're beginning to see the difficulty of turning rhetoric to reality, to quote (from today's MTP) Michelle Norris of NPR. As with all government documents, you have to read the fine print and even though there is now an executive order to close Guantanamo Bay Prison, it will take a year. (Which by the way, Tom Friedman on today's program surprisingly agreed with.) However, 'What do we do with the prisoners?' There is thta 'minor' detail and of course a pesky statistic like 61 of the former inmates freed are actively back on the battlefield of the Shadow War. More rhetoric... there will be no lobbyists working in an Obama administration... but we need this one exception for National Security.
[Michelle Norris did point out during the program that the Obama campaign backed off of that a little as time moved on from when he first made the prophetic statement in November of 2007. The big pronouncement had some finer print attached.]
And no more do we see a haze of finer print than with the economic stimulus plan, in which words are being added faster, by all players, Democrat and Republican, than dollars to the national debt. As evidenced by Mr. Gregory's interview with Dr. Larry Summers, Director of the National Economic Council, the answers do not come easy if at all because it is still perfectly clear that no one has the answers. Dr. Summers, saying the the Bush tax cuts needed to expire, was easily tripped up by the use of Mr. Gregory's use of the devil's advocate tactic. He commented that we could not afford the Bush tax cuts, but we could afford tax cuts for the middle class? His answer that we will afford what we can now simply was not enough.
Granted, Dr. Summers, is not as articulate as his boss, but he should be able to explain that the tax burden on Americans is disproportionate and that is one of the reasons why the Bush tax cuts need not be renewed. He did confirm that the President does now receive a daily economic briefing along with the daily national security briefing, but what does it say? There are politicians like today's guest John Boehner who believe the $825 billion is too much but there are also economists who say it's too little - by about a couple of trillion. And then there is Paul Krugman of Princeton University and The New York Times who says that every day we wait is another hole shot in the side of the boat. Is that what it says because that's all we hear. The one point that Dr. Summers was dead on correct was the irony of the situation - that the last Republican Administration who are all about free market brought us to this point in which the government has to bail out the financial industry.
This irony... well, take a look at my notes on the statements of Rep. Boehner:
[Government spending that won't work...
Can't borrow and spend to improve the economy..
Educational spending is not going to help the economy...
Size and spending of the stimulus - we (Republicans) don't think it's going to work
Banking Crisis - We need an exit strategy from tarp...
We (Republicans) need him to succeed - America needs him to succeed]
President Obama says big, profound stimulus by the Government, but Government spending will not work. We can not borrow and spend but that is exactly what we're doing due to the Bush Administration. Educational spending is going to help the economy, but we could recruit more teachers, build schools and make it affordable for people to afford college. People would be inclined to apply for loans, which the banks need to give to stimulate the economy. Mr. Boehner speaking on behalf of Republicans in Congress said that they will vote no because they see it as wasteful government spending. With all that said, Republicans still want him to succeed while playing obstructionist.
But the Republicans are so emasculated that they are what The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes referred to as one of the smaller boats who may be given some leverage in the overall discussion. The reality of that rhetoric is that they won't.
[Note on the Transcript: I waited to post because I wanted to check something from the transcript. On the last page, page 5, I noticed that between many of the guests answers, the moderator Mr. Gregory say 'right' repeatedly coming across quite disingenuous. To quote a friend, 'this isn't a good look.']
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