It’s that guy again, Obama. According to some who actually listened to this speech, he “acts liberal” about halfway through, for a few minutes. Yay! But what did he actually mean?
The businesspeople at Bloomberg say:
President Barack Obama vowed to cut $4 trillion in cumulative deficits within 12 years through a combination spending cuts and tax increases, setting the stage for a fight with congressional Republicans over the nation’s priorities.
The polite leftists at Salon say:
Here we go again. A few days after he agreed to a compromise with Republican leaders to keep the government open — and just as he’s about to deliver a major speech on his long-term deficit reduction priorities — President Obama is being confronted with warnings that he’s at risk of losing his left-of-center political base.
And we say, “Oh just quit talking, Obama.” The end.
(Here’s the text of the speech, from ABC News.)
{ 136 comments }
Show us the alien brain scar or GTFO.
And why won't Barry Sotero release the long form of the medical records from when he was kidnapped by aliens and had a transponder placed in his brain? It would take so little to satisfy the legitimate questions that have been raised. All he needs to do is sign the form, and the surgeons from planet ZogRon will release the records.
I thought we all agreed that Republicans would be in charge of everything for all time, no matter what. That was the compromise we reached, wasn't it?
I thought it was a good speech. I look forward to reading the plan. I still have faith in Barry and his Kenyan MUSLIN ways.
Get a brane moran!
I know. I need to, truly.
Well if M-theory is true, then WordSaladNation already has a brane, the same one we all share, the 3-dimensional one floating in the 10-dimensional bulk that all the known particles that make up our universe are attached to.
wut?
We'd better stop talking about M-theory, or Michio Kaku will be contractually obligated to come and comment on it for an hour.
Now having him comment here would be simply awesome.
Unless, you know, holography.
It would be better if the American public wakes up and asks what the Republiklans plan is, because Speaker Drunky McNicotineStain has already said that raising taxes is a "non-starter".
Sooner or later, just saying "No" to everything has to stop being acceptable to the average American.
Triangulate, triangulate, triangulate…..doesn't work if you don't have any nuts in the first place!
The cosmic ballet…continues.
Why is the video playing without my consent? Soshulizm!!!1!!!!
I'm just glad I already had headphones in and Ken didn't make me unintentionally annoy my coworkers.
so true – one should only annoy co-workers intentionally
Exactly; self-induced flatulence works well.
But I thought that, according to Dick Cheney, Reagan proved deficits don't matter.
They don't matter until they do and then they're all that matters and you can kill the olds and poors.
So, what, he tripped and the billions of dollars just sort of fell into rich peoples pockets, all accidental like?
(Ha! Even when I make fun of O'Barry spanky still downfists me. What a maroon.)
I would describe it as more of a "trickle" instead of a "fall." Y'know kinda like how Niagra Falls is a trickle.
Check out where a couple of rich wives of rich bankers got 220 million big ones from TARP just because.
Why is it still playing on my teevee and you're all talking about it in the past tense? I know time zones are tricky, but damn!
We borrowed the DeLorean for the afternoon.
What's this I hear about President Roosevelt giving a speech? I'd better fire up the ol' Hallicrafters!
Damn dude how long do you need, you told me you could fix this sh*t .
If I get downfisted while he's speaking, I can cross him off my list of suspects.
Have you never heard of scripting?
I think our problem is too many Baby Boomers. HEY GREATEST GENERATION PLEASE STOP FUCKING LIKE BUNNY RABBITS KTHXBAI.
All the female boomers are post-menopausal, and the males have had vasectomies.
Which they will promptly get reversed when they're in their seventies & on their third trophy wife (26, State U dropout, met when she was hosting at a chic niteclub in Chicago or Las Vegas, wants to have a baby (have Kanye's word meant nothing to men!?)).
NOOOOOO! Not more jerb-killing taxes on our nation's wealthy! You tax them and they're not going to want to be rich anymore! No more trickle-downs for us poors!
they will all move to singapore !
Too fucking little, too fucking late. And not enough fucking, also too.
Oh well.
I think I hear the flying monkeys of the Wicked Kochs of the West shrieking and throwing their poop at this very moment.
Tax the fuckers.
Known and unknown.
The budget you have, not the budget you might want or wish to have at a later time.
Snark aside… I thought it was pretty good. First time I've heard a speech of his that came close to those I heard during the campaign trail.
revre!
Agree. I'm not a Barry fan much, but he showed a little mojo. However, the reining in future Medicare costs? Sounded to me like "cutting waste and fraud and inefficiency" not two minutes after he had just smacked that BS down. But as a born-in-1957, set-to-be-screwed-by-Jugears-Ryan, I need this man to veto any Private Oldcare proposal for the next five years or so.
I have an idea too: A refrigerator door that opens automatically whenever I pause my DVR.
How about: Men over 65 get TWO votes, to make up for the ones they won't get to cast when the womenfolk outlive them.
It took 100 years to get addicted to oil. How fast can we get addicted to its replacement?
I can't get the video to stop. I've pressed pause, stop and mute but there are still two college students talking at me about things. This was Obama's plan all along… North Korea-style mandatory radio that you can't turn off.
"Our Dear Leader reports ginseng production is up this season!"
Your computer has a line plug, right?
With all due respect, Barbara, what if he's not a leftist at all and is simply a political creature. That's not how he sold himself on the campaign, nor why he was elected, but things might be going pretty close to acceptable for him.
And stop looking at GOP asses, please. People are starting to talk.
Hey, the troll with one testicle is back! I bet he's got one hand on his mouse and the other is in his pants while he watches Obama on TV. Upfists for everyone, on me!
Me too! 'Course, that's a given.
I'd just like to note that my score has gone up by three points since downfister started tilting at windmills. I can't imagine how much money Wonkette has made off all the page refreshes.
I've always had this sliver of hope (the kind you get when you buy a lotto ticket – you know it ain't gonna happen but damn, wouldn't it be nice) that Barry's been rope-a-doping these fuckers. Just when it's about to go away completely he gives another hint. I haven't been played like this since my high school girlfriend.
I am feeling exactly the same, I still love him and still think he is so much smarter than anyone else and that he knows we are having doubts but he will make it ok in the end Jesus Fucking Christ I am crying now . Damn you Barry
WTF. Why are the uncool kids still talking. Please stop now.
Pretty good Barry. Now get rid of the millionaire tax cutz or GTFO.
And beloved troll GTFO, also, too.
He did say he wanted to get rid of them in his speech, along with a lot of deductions & loopholes the rich use to avoid paying their fair share. I'd like to go further, though, and create at least one new tax bracket above the $250,000 top rate we have today to get the bastards with seven or eight figure incomes.
yeah…and i promise i'll pull out
Remember Clinton in the 95 government shutdown; the Republicans had taken both houses of Congress, and he still called their bluff, and got his budget in the end. Why can't Obama have balls like that?
Maybe Obama needs a good intern to help keep his balls in shape. For the good of the country.
Time for flotus to stop worrying about all those fat kids and take care of some bidness at home.
I just read the text of the speech. Really, really good. He even had a few good zingers! Favreau must have stopped banging that cardboard Hillary and focused this weekend.
Started with the right joke for the crowd (yet another reason to skip class – you're welcome) and went up from there. Not sure how it sounded, but it read strong.
I thought the first third was jim-dandy, but then it just kinda…….subsided…………. into……………..generic……………………you're………………………………..fucked, get used to it.
Actually, I'm slightly less demoralized. Nothing the Republican response and a few mornings of Mornin' Joe! won't take of though.
That dude from IASIP cleans up well.
I think that it is time we just hand the US over to our Chinese overlords. I mean, we are fucked anyway. No use putting it off any longer.
Cha-ching!
Oh, did you stop? Spent so soon? Your pigfriend must be so disappointed in you.
For all the worry warts out there that think the US is doomed, doomed I tell ya, you need to learn only a few things.
Ottawa is the Capital.
Hockey is the best.
If you live on the Wet Coast, Toronto sucks. (which it does)
You live in TO, Wet Coasters are too fuki'n Liberal (but they live longer) and the Bloc Quebecois is not a National party (until they seperate)
Welcome to Canada eh!
Hopey, we're over here on your left…………..no your other left.
Can't help it, I love the guy. Just like how that white fatty on that Rascal loves him some Michelle Bachmann, I loves me some Barry.
More televised appearances would do wonders for his base. But for those who think the Cosby Show is too urban, it makes 'em twitchy.
He actually gives these kind of speeches all the time, or at least according to his facebook feed. The problem is they're all boring so why would the cable news networks talk about it? And the Left doesn't notice because it would get in the way of thinking he's a secret Republican.
We still have a left? Groovy!
I know! He's always talking, and much of it is "socialist," but no one pays attention because it doesn't make good sound bites or blog headlines.
I get his Facebook feed and there's a lot of times it feels like he exists in some other alternative universe, where things are sane and makes sense and where all of the craziness in this country doesn't exist. Of course, often I wonder if it would be better if he visited our reality every once in awhile and do that hopey changey thing here
whoa whoa mara liasson is saying he eviscerated paul ryan.
can that be good?
He said that each person helped by Ryan's tax cuts for the wealthy means 33 poorer seniors starving, or something like that, so yeah, it was pretty good.
Those who rely on meals on wheels will be dead by then so, no problem.
I thought they were to be eliminated by the Death Panels?
What, did he roll a perfect 20 on the d20? Or did he just get some sort of strength bonus on a critical hit?
NERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD! But I be Barry would know exactly what you were talking about; he's such a nerd. It's one reason I love him!
Lessee…Barry is an Eladrin Wizard, Level 10?
Flayed Irishman is my favourite menu item at the fusion place by my house, so, yes.
Fuck this guy. I ain't gonna believe another word from his lyin' self until he actually DOES something progressive rather than just cock teases us.
"Here’s Barack Obama Saying He Didn’t Really Mean To Give Tax Cuts To Rich"
And I didn't mean to vote for a capitulator who caves into Republitards on every basic principle.
OT
Senator Limpsley Hambiscuits sayz he's gonna shutdown the government if $50K to fund a Corpse of Engineers study deepening Charleston Harbor is put back in the budget agreement.
Fifty fuckin' $K???? What a douche!!!!
Go, Hambiscuits, go! See how that works out for you!
"That stuff about tax cuts causing jobs to magically occur is correct. Except in this case. Except when it applies to my re-election campaign." Oh, Lindsey, Lindsey, you truly are a slimeball douchebag asshole. Unfuck you! (In my lexicon, "fuck" is good. I wish no thing that is good to this turd.)
Julio the poolboy must have went back to visit the family in PR this week.
Do you people know just how many Ham Biscuits $50,000 can buy?
Lindsay makes that much on Saturday afternoon giving blow jobs to the sailors docked at Charleston Harbor .
He sounds just like a white liberal, uncanny performance.
Action, man. there has to be action BEFORE 2012. m'kay?
stop talking, make Bernie Sanders your BFF
problem solved
Sorry, I can't watch the vid at work – did he have his fingers crossed?
Maybe Obama needs to appoint more socialists: Immelt, Geithner, Summers, the Ben Bernanke … they're all great socialists, but maybe we need just one more and then Hopey can fulfill his dreams.
Robert Reich. Seriously. Reich is the man.
Poor guy's been playing Cassandra for the past 20 years. How he hasn't drunk himself to death I'll never know.
I was immunized against this stuff by Bill Clinton, way back when.
ok, pretty simple, $4 trillion in cuts in 12 years – just cut the military 30% and the job is done! oh but of course a realistic cut of the bloated military is never on the table.
it reminds me of my buddies in the UK about the exuberance when Obama won. They pointed out Britain felt the same way when Blair won and had optimism again etc. Their euphoria lasted a hell of a lot longer than ours over Obama.
Blair? Thanks, Carl, almost forgot about that mini-cunt.
maybe you should try to post funny comments more and worry about your pee pee less.
That is the point of the all caps portion of my comment, Holmes.
tldr
Ok so now imagine this under George W. Bush.
The federal government on Wednesday ordered 16 of the nation's largest mortgage lenders and servicers to reimburse homeowners who were improperly foreclosed upon.
Never stopped to figure out the "fisting" thing. I know it's simple, like me. Do not give the first fuck about 'P' ratings, just let me fucking rant, pleeeeeze!
Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing SS means-tested. Also wouldn't mind if contribution cap were removed. Those are called "progressive" taxes, so to speak. Elvis paid over 90% rate on his income; it didn't seem to cramp his style too much.
you know he's dead, right?
To you, maybe. To me, NEVER!
I've only ever downfisted in error, and always felt tremendous guilt and shame about it. I tend to just ignore stuff I disagree with.
Say I'm playing a bball game and the other team is playing dirty and the refs are ignoring it and trying to say they're calling the game fairly. It's one game – I can take the high road for this one game and not stoop to their level, dignity intact.
But it continues. All season long the other teams are playing dirty, getting worse, and the refs aren't calling anything – do I keep taking the high road? Depends. Do I care? If I do, I better give up the high road and start doing what it's going to take to level out the playing field and get the advantage back. If I don't then I really am a wimp and didn't deserve to win anyway.
and then they'll create some jobs?
Hopey always gave "good" speeches (compared to W, ie: he doesn't sound retarded). These good speeches ain't done shit. They haven't done much to further the "Changey" aspects of his campaign rhetoric. Polite and non-retarded ain't enough anymore, he's gotta start banging the podium with his shoe ala that other commie Kruschev.
Hopey needs to quit bringing his kickball skills to the gun fight.
I see your confusion.
You voted for Clint Eastwood, not the president of the Harvard Law Review.
Fly to Boston. Take the "Red Line" to Harvard Square.
Walk around campus and let us know how many "gun fights" you see there…
Come on – Chicago pol – you know, dirty – he can't snow me with all that effete hahvad crap.
No – did not vote for Clint Eastwood. And no – don't think Harvard Law Review prez or even Harvard alum automagically means pussie, either.
in a way it would be better of Prez Senile was trying to cut all these programs, then we (& perhaps Dem senators/congresspersons) would be up in arms to block & stop it.
But when it's a community organizer smiling & cutting community programs, we just go along with it?
What program did Obama say he was going to cut?
Well, there was the thing about if Medicare costs don't magically get better, this "independent commission" would fix things. This is how you say "Imma cut Medicare" without actually saying it.
Did he really make a new speech or was this just a cut and paste job from all his other speeches? Someone should check the teleprompter!
I've downfisted trolls (NaderPaulKucinichGravel, I'm looking at you), obvious spam or blogwhoring, and when people get too offensive. But that's about it, besides accidents; oh and praising the wrong sports teams.
From the Washington Post:
"Obama’s budget speech has partisan tone…“There’s nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. And I don’t think there’s anything courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don’t have any clout on Capitol Hill.” The speech was a marked contrast to the “above the fray” approach Obama has taken in the past several months, particularly last week as he seemed to blame Democrats and Republicans equally for the near government shutdown…"
NEEDZ MOAR SUB-FRAY!!!!
"Obama's budget speech has partisan tone…"
Truth has a liberal bias.
Facts. Balls. Get 'em and use 'em.
Yep.
Sometimes I think if the liberal dems said 2+2 is 4 and the republicans said 2+2 is 22, some of the Dems (O included) and the media would declare the answer is probably somewheres around 11.
Fuck, I WISH it had a partisan tone.
Ummm, did you see the speech? He basically called the Republicans a bunch of fucking nihilists.
And Krugman makes three.
I got hammered for saying something critical about Keith Olbermann, so I know it isn't just you.
I comment on another ID hosted blog and they chose to not have the thumbs down option, just the thumbs up. I sort of wish Wonkette was that way. It would get rid of the downfisty troll obsession at any rate.
I save my fists for especially deserving posts. Don't want to risk getting a STD from indiscriminate fisting.
I don't know. I think everything he does is calculated, well thought out, and insightful. But the only thing he can't count on are the other crazies who put partisan politics before the good of the people.
Nah, he doesn't wanna hear that one.
Given his track record, I wouldn't believe Obama if he told me it was cherry blossom time in Washington DC.
Shared responsibility and shared sacrifice, for who in particular?
The eternal battle between Superman and Bizarro World Superman.
Well, he didn't announce the immediate cancellation of Medicare, so there's that.
Really (I just read the text) it was a pretty decent speech. Of course. The problem will, I suspect, come from the absence of follow-up — you know, beating on what the cuts to the 12% actually are; explaining what cuts to Medicaid mean in terms of poor senior citizens being thrown to the metaphorical wolves. FUCKING MESSAGING, HOW DOES IT WORK?
I grew up in Wisconsin, I've spent most of my life in California, and I've only ever been in Missouri maybe a half dozen times, but my basic reaction is "SHOW ME!"
I don't knows abouts the rest of yous guys, but this was a pretty damned good speech. And not the wrapping-bullshit-with-platitudes crap he used to give on the campaign trail. This was one of those please-hold-me-to-what-I-say thingies.
Most of his stuff has been equivicating "just words" over the course of his career, but this seems like an accountability speech. This is something that can be played on TV in a very real way if he starts to stray. He hasn't given himself much wiggle room in this one.
Plus, I like how he totally tore Paul Ryan a new one, and how Ryan replied about how shocked and angry he was to hear the speech. Good, good….moar of dis pleeze…
One of the best Obama tirades yet – & one of the most important … comes out at 2PM on a Wednesday.
facepalm.jpg
Preciate it!
I'd like to take a visit to HIS world, actually. I'll even grow a goatee if I have to!
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