This week, President Obama held a press conference discussing a number of issues, but center stage was the President’s jobs plan. It ended up being a display of either Obama’s ignorance or arrogance.While this applies to a number of issues that were discussed, the part that stuck out the most were claims regarding the Republicans and their jobs plan.
One thing Obama said was “They’ve given me a list of, well, here’s the Republican job creation ideas: Let’s pass free trade agreements.”
If Obama did any homework, he would know that the Republicans have offered more than that. In fact, free trade isn’t their central push. The center of the Republican jobs plan is to cut back on excessive regulations that make it hard for companies to invest and build. That can be seen in the legislation they’re pushing and passing in the House of Representatives. But that’s not the picture painted this week by the White House. President Obama acted as if the Republicans are doing nothing and offering nothing.
This can be seen in other statements by Obama “…they haven’t given a good reason why they’re opposed to putting construction workers back on the job, or teachers back in the classroom.”
It’s not about putting construction workers or teachers back on the job. It’s that these approaches don’t amount to much. They don’t generate work through their work. Once the road is built or the school year is over, that’s the end of the story. It’s clear that Obama’s mentioning these jobs because how could anyone be opposed to putting teachers to work and construction workers on the job? It’s clear because these are the occupations he goes to over and over and over. He said “teachers” nine times and “construction workers” four times in the press conference. By the way, the Republicans did say why they’re opposed to Obama’s plan. The Republicans did that back in the middle of September. Either Obama’s ignorant or too arrogant to actually listen to the other side.
This wasn’t a one time thing. President Obama also said that anyone out there who’s thinking of voting against his bill “needs to explain exactly why they would oppose something that we know would improve our economic situation at such an urgent time for our families and for our businesses.” Again, the Republicans did that almost a month ago.
More ignorance came up when Obama said “If it turns out that there are Republicans who are opposed to this bill, they need to explain to me -- but more importantly, to their constituencies and the American people -- why they’re opposed and what would they do.” How many times do the Republicans have to say why they’re opposed to the bill until Obama understands that they’ve done this. Also, this shouldn’t be an “if” statement. Anyone who follows Washington knows that there are Republicans who are opposed to the bill.
Obama stuck with this whole thing, saying that Republicans are opposed to things such as tax cuts. He said “It is now up to all the senators, and hopefully all the members of the House, to explain to their constituencies why they would be opposed to common-sense ideas that historically have been supported by Democrats and Republicans in the past. Why would you be opposed to tax cuts for small businesses and tax cuts for American workers?” Again, the Republicans have said what they don’t like about the bill but they also talked about what they did like. In the memo released back in September, the GOP stated they liked eight different parts of the Obama jobs bill including tax cuts. But Obama didn’t hear that for some reason. It’s as if he wants to be in gridlock with the Republicans. He’s not trying to find common ground and he’s not showing urgency. If he was, he’d just run with these parts of the bill and work on the others later.
The urgency issue is one that Obama did stress during the press conference. He used the phrase “right now” four times in his opening. He went on to say it more than 15 times regarding the economy. I’d say that Obama views the matter as being urgent, but he said that the Senate would vote on his bill next week. On the same day, House Speaker John Boehner released a statement praising the House for passing a part of the Republican jobs plan. During the same week, the House would consider another bill limiting regulations on businesses. This isn’t “next week” talk. It’s here and it’s now. If anyone acting “right now,” it’s Speaker Boehner and the GOP.
President Obama also proved himself ignorant of the arguments being made by his opposition. He said “And historically, Republicans haven’t been opposed to rebuilding roads and bridges. Why would you be opposed now?” It’s like he really doesn’t understand why, with our massive debt and out-of-control federal spending, Republicans would be opposed to building roads and bridges. It’s like going to Abraham Lincoln’s wife the day after the President was shot and saying “I don’t know why you didn’t enjoy your time at the Ford Theater. You usually love going there!”
This was not a display of leadership. It was a little over an hour of finger pointing and blame games. By showing up completely clueless to a press conference, Obama ended up looking completely ignorant or arrogant. Neither are characteristics that resonate with voters.
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