Dems’ 2012 Slogan is Already Quite Clear: Political Payback Trumps Jobs

January 24, 2012

With A Record of Crushing Debt, Failed Stimulus and Job Destruction, President Obama Has Made Clear that He Will Spend 2012 Rewarding Washington Friends Willing to Help Him Keep His Own Job

After three years of failure, Americans can expect to hear more new slogans in President Obama’s State of the Union address tonight in an attempt to defend Democrats’ failed policies.
Whatever slogans President Obama unveils tonight probably won’t come as a surprise given that he’s already made quite clear that in 2012 he’s giving up on job creation to focus on political payback for his left-wing Washington interest group allies.
After three years of failed policies—a job-destroying government takeover of healthcare, a failed stimulus and more than four trillion dollars added to the national debt—sadly Democrats don’t have much else to run on.

After three years of failure, Americans can expect to hear more new slogans in President Obama’s State of the Union address tonight in an attempt to defend Democrats’ failed policies:

OBAMA TO RALLY THE BASE IN STATE OF THE UNION: “… the West Wing has been reaching out to progressive advocates and telling them they will ‘love’ the speech. Hail to the base.” (Glenn Thrush, “WH State of the Union Speech,” Politico, 1/23/2012)

CHRONOLOGY OF AN OBAMA SLOGAN

OBAMA TRIED TO “REBOOT AS T.R. 2.0” IN DECEMBER: (Ron Fournier, “Obama Reboots as ‘TR 2.0,’” National Journal, 12/5/2011)

AFTER DEMANDING STIMULUS 2.0 ON THE BASIS THAT “WE CAN’T WAIT” FOR MORE:

“President Obama’s growing impatience with Congress’ refusal to ‘pass this bill now’ has launched a new approach — bypassing Congress by taking actions that don’t require congressional support and insisting that ‘We Can’t Wait’ for any more delays on Capitol Hill.” (“President Begins ‘We Can’t Wait’ Economic Push,” Fox News, 10/24/2011)

“WE CAN’T WAIT” WAS PRECEDED BY “PASS THIS BILL NOW”:

OBAMA URGED TO “PASS THIS BILL” DOZENS OF TIMES SINCE SEPTEMBER JOBS RE-DO SPEECH: (“Search ‘pass this bill,’” The White House, Accessed 12/5/2011)

BUT PIVOTED TO “WE CAN’T WAIT” AROUND LATE OCTOBER: (“Search ‘we can’t wait,’” The White House, Accessed 12/5/2011)

WHY “PASS THIS BILL NOW”? BECAUSE DEMS WERE AFRAID TO USE THE WORD “STIMULUS”:

OBAMA’S “NEW AND IMPROVED” JOB PLAN “COULD AMOUNT TO A SIGNIFICANT STIMULUS OF BETWEEN $300 BILLION AND $400 BILLION… BUT [OBAMA] WON’T USE THE WORD”: (David Wessel, “Obama Tries to Rewrite Narrative on Jobs,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/7/2011)

FORMER WH ECONOMIST: MORE STIMULUS, BUT “YOU WON’T HEAR THE S WORD”: “‘You won’t hear the word ‘stimulus’ — the ‘s word’ — because that just is politically unappealing right now,’ Jared Bernstein, who left his post as Vice President Joe Biden’s top economist in June, told us on ABC’s ‘Top Line’ today. ‘But you will hear targeted measures, which I think is actually a more apt description of what I think the president will talk about.’” (Rick Klein, “Obama to Seek Stimulus Funds—But ‘You Won’t Hear the S Word’,” ABC News’ The Note Blog, 8/31/2011)

OBAMA JOBS RE-DO SPEECH USED THE WORD “STIMULUS” ZERO TIMES.(“Address by the President to a Joint Session of Congress,” The White House, 9/8/2011)

LAST YEAR, OBAMA DEBUTED “WIN THE FUTURE” IN HIS STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH:

“STATE OF THE UNION 2011: ‘WIN THE FUTURE,’ OBAMA SAYS,” NEARLY A DOZEN TIMES IN THAT SPEECH ALONE: “Obama repeatedly declared the imperative to ‘win the future,’ comparing the current need for innovation to the space race against the Soviet Union in the 1950s and ’60s. … His overarching theme – of ‘winning the future,’ a phrase he used nearly a dozen times – had patriotic underpinnings, part of his effort to reach a broad swath of the electorate and strike a balance between sounding too rosy and too alarmed about America’s standing in the world.” (Anne E. Kornblut and Scott Wilson, “State of the Union 2011: ‘Win the Future,’ Obama Says,” The Washington Post, 1/26/2011)

“WINNING THE FUTURE” WAS ACCOMPANIED BY AN EMPHASIS ON NEW “INVESTMENT”:

OBAMA REFERENCED VARIATIONS ON “INVESTMENT” 13 TIMES IN STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH: (“Remarks by the President in State of the Union Address,” The White House, 1/25/2011)

AND IT ALL BEGAN WITH “STIMULUS”:

WHICH, BY OBAMA’S ADMISSION, WAS A CODE-WORD FOR ANOTHER MALIGNED CONCEPT: “SPENDING”: “So then you get the argument, well, this is not a stimulus bill, this is a spending bill. What do you think a stimulus is? (Laughter and applause.) That’s the whole point. No, seriously. (Laughter.) That’s the point. (Applause.)” (“Remarks by the President at House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference,” TheWhite House, 2/5/2009)

AND WE CAN’T FORGET “GREEN JOBS”… WHICH, BY THE WAY, “WE CAN’T WAIT” FOR:

OBAMA SAID HIS 2009 BUDGET WOULD CREATE “GREEN JOBS”: “[T]his budget will spark the transformation we need to create green jobs and launch renewable energy companies right here in California.” (“Remarks by the President at Costa Mesa Town Hall,” The White House, 3/18/2009)

Whatever slogans President Obama unveils tonight probably won’t come as a surprise given that he’s already made quite clear that in 2012 he’s giving up on job creation to focus on political payback for his left-wing Washington interest group allies:

A PATTERN OF POLITICAL PAYBACK:

OBAMA BLOCKS 20,000 “SHOVEL-READY” KEYSTONE JOBS: (Editorial, “Keystone Cop-Out,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/11/2011)

LONG-TERM JOBS IMPACT: UP TO 130,000 JOBS: “Many of those 20,000 jobs on the construction of the pipeline would have been filled by skilled union members. Eventually, the completed pipeline was expected to result in as many as 130,000 jobs, many of them on the upper Texas Coast, where the heavy oil would be refined into 700,000 barrels of oil daily.” (Editorial, “Keystone Pipeline is the Wrong Call,” The Houston Chronicle, 11/11/2011)

KEYSTONE JOBS MAY GO TO CHINA AFTER OBAMA DECISION: “President Barack Obama’s decision yesterday to reject a permit for TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline may prompt Canada to turn to China for oil exports.” (Theophilis Arigitis and Jeremy Loon, “Obama Keystone Denial Prompts Canada to Focus on China,”Bloomberg, 1/19/2012)

GREEN GROUPS THREATENED TO ABANDON OBAMA IF HE APPROVED KEYSTONE: “Environmental groups have been protesting the pipeline that would run from Alberta oil sands to Texas refineries, and there have been rumblings that greens would abandon Obama next fall if he approved it.” (Dan Berman and Darren Goode, “Obama Punts Keystone XL Pipeline,” Politico, 11/10/2011)

USA TODAY: OBAMA DECISION “THE MOST CRAVEN SORT OF ELECTION-YEAR POLITICS,” POLITICAL PAYBACK FOR ENVIRONMENTALIST INTEREST GROUPS:(“Obama’s Pipeline Decision Delays Energy Security,” USA Today, 1/18/2012)

4,257 NEW REGULATIONS IN THE WORKS, MORE THAN 200 WILL COST OVER $100 MILLION ANNUALLY—15% MORE REGULATIONS THAN IN 2010.“Appropriate and responsible regulations play an important policymaking role. Yet the Obama administration has turned rule-making into an assault on American businesses and the jobs they create. Right now, 4,257 new regulations are in the works, 219 of which will cost over $100 million annually — 15 percent more than last year.” (Editorial, “How Obama’s Rules Hold Back Chicago Business,” The Chicago Sun-Times, 8/30/2011)

OBAMA GAVE “EMBATTLED” EPA A HUG WHILE GIVING WORKERS THE COLD SHOULDER: “On a day when Republican presidential candidates stumped for votes in New Hampshire, President Obama paid a visit Tuesday afternoon to the employees of the embattled Environmental Protection Agency, which has been the target of GOP disdain.” (David Nakamura, “Obama Gives Embattled EPA a Pep Talk,” The Washington Post, 1/10/2012)

HOW IS EPA “EMBATTLED” WHEN OBAMA LETS EPA BUREAUCRATS HAVE THE REGULATIONS THEY WANT, DESTROYING 183,000 JOBS A YEAR, 1.65 MILLION JOBS DESTROYED THROUGH 2020?: (“EPA Finalizes New Rule That Will Hurt American Economy,” American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, 12/21/2011)

LIKE CLOCKWORK: DEMOCRATS’ ENVIRONMENTALIST FUNDRAISING ORGANIZATION BASE REJOICES OVER EPA’S JOB-DESTROYING DECISION:“Environmentalists rallied so hard for the Obama administration on Wednesday,you’d think power plants were shooting cotton candy from their smokestacks.”(Erica Martinson, “EPA Power Plant Rule Has Greens Pro-Obama,” Politico, 12/22/2011)

WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF BILL DALEY, BROUGHT ON TO MEND FENCES WITH JOB CREATORS, RECENTLY ANNOUNCED HIS RESIGNATION: (Christi Parsons, “William Daley to Step Down as Obama’s Chief of Staff,” Los Angeles Times, 1/9/2012)

ENVIROS REJOICE, “SAY ‘GOOD RIDDANCE’ TO DALEY”: (Darren Samuelsohn, “Greens Say ‘Good Riddance’ to Daley,” Politico, 1/9/2012)

OBAMA’S “GREEN” PROGRAM THAT FUNDED NOW-BANKRUPT SOLYNDRA “INFUSED WITH POLITICS AT EVERY LEVEL”: “Meant to create jobs and cut reliance on foreign oil, Obama’s green-technology program was infused with politics at every level, The Washington Post found in an analysis of thousands of memos, company records and internal e-mails. Political considerations were raised repeatedly by company investors, Energy Department bureaucrats and White House officials.

“The records, some previously unreported, show that when warned that financial disaster might lie ahead, the administration remained steadfast in its support for Solyndra.” (Joe Stephens and Carol D. Leonnig, “Solyndra: Politics Infused Obama Energy Programs,” The Washington Post, 12/25/2011)

After three years of failed policies—a job-destroying government takeover of healthcare, a failed stimulus and more than four trillion dollars added to the national debt—sadly Democrats don’t have much else to run on:

ONE YEAR AGO, 98% OF HOUSE DEMOCRATS REFUSED TO REPEAL GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER OF HEALTHCARE: Final Vote: 245-189 (House Vote #14, 1/19/2011)

13.1 MILLION UNEMPLOYED AMERICANS: (Table A-1, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Accessed 1/19/2012)

1.7 MILLION JOBS LOST SINCE OBAMA TOOK OFFICE: (Michael A. Fletcher, “Falling Jobless Rate is Good News for Obama,” The Washington Post, 1/7/2012)

15.2 PERCENT UNDEREMPLOYMENT: (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Accessed 1/19/2012)

NEARLY 7 MILLION MORE AMERICANS LIVING IN POVERTY: (p. 5, “Poverty: 2008 and 2009,” U.S. Census Bureau, September 2010; Table 1, “Poverty: 2009 and 2010,” U.S. Census Bureau, October 2011)

16.5 MILLION MORE AMERICANS ON FOOD STAMPS: (“Food Stamp Nation,” The Wall Street Journal, 1/20/2012)

FAMILIES ALREADY PAYING $1,698 MORE PER YEAR FOR HEALTH INSURANCE:(The Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research & Educational Trust Employee Health Benefits 2011 Annual Survey, “Average Annual Premiums for Single and Family Coverage, 1999–2011,” p. 30)

GAS PRICES $1.51 PER GALLON HIGHER UNDER OBAMA: (“Petroleum & Other Liquids,” U.S. Energy Information Administration, 1/17/2011)

OBAMA’S MISERABLE DEBT RECORD:

“OBAMA ASKS CONGRESS TO RAISE DEBT CEILING BY $1.2 TRILLION”: (“Obama Asks Congress to Raise Debt Ceiling by $1.2 Trillion,” Reuters, 1/12/2012)

A $4.6 TRILLION INCREASE IN NATIONAL DEBT SINCE OBAMA TOOK OFFICE:(“The Daily History of the Debt Results,” TreasuryDirect.Gov, Accessed 1/10/2012)

OBAMA RECORD “THE MOST RAPID INCREASE IN THE DEBT UNDER ANY U.S. PRESIDENT”: (Mark Knoller, “National debt has increased $4 trillion under Obama,” CBS News’Political Hotsheet Blog, 8/22/11)

NATIONAL DEBT STANDS AT $15.24 TRILLION: (“The Daily History of the Debt Results,”TreasuryDirect.Gov, Accessed 1/17/2012)

SIZE OF NATION’S ECONOMY AT $15.18 TRILLION: (“National Economic Accounts,”Bureau of Economic Analysis, Accessed 1/17/2012)