"Sorry state of the union? Actually, 2013 saw progress" January 28, 2014
The conventional wisdom heading into tonight’s State of the Union address is there may be some truth, but the fact is just how much politics — or, more precisely, political rise-and-fall narratives — can cloud perceptions….
In 2013, the stock market, a leading source of wealth and retirement income, soared, with the S&P 500 rising by 29.6 percent. The unemployment rate dropped from 7.9 percent in January to 6.7 percent in December. The budget deficit — source of so much anxiety in the 2012 election — plunged from $1.1 trillion in fiscal 2012 to $688 billion in fiscal 2013 and is on its way to another steep decline in fiscal 2014.
This didn’t come about via some quirk of the business cycle unconnected to the functioning of the government. In fact, Obama achieved the long-proposed income-tax hike on high earners, couples reporting more than $450,000 per year.
Incredible!
See: Sunday Globe Specials: Fiscal Cliff Fraud
Yes, the tax hike was a tax cut for the wealthy, but don't let that spoil the shit-shoveling narrative.
Along with a 5 percent rise in the capital-gains tax rate and the end of a temporary reduction in the payroll tax, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy helped restore fiscal equilibrium. Congress also showed unusual spending restraint that represented an honest middle ground.
There were other breakthroughs: Defense spending, a sacred cow behind which both parties hid wasteful expenditures, came in for serious scrutiny. Total Pentagon receipts dropped from $645 billion in fiscal 2012 to $614 billion in fiscal 2013, with further reductions taking hold in fiscal 2014.
Looks like the Globe is not paying attention the the campaign rhetoric.
Meanwhile, senators finally passed a comprehensive immigration bill, and, suddenly, positive signs on immigration reform are emanating from the House.
See: The Return of Immigration Reform
None of this erases the rancor in Washington, or the unconscionable lack of progress on, for instance, keeping guns from the violent or insane.
Related(?): Maryland Mall Mystery
But in a different political environment, a more positive narrative might well take hold….
Yeah, it's ALL ABOUT IMAGERY, ILLUSION, and NARRATIVE!
Any wonder I'm sick of reading this slop?
But naysaying is easy, and real steps forward are hard….
I suppose that is why the Globe and the PtB haven't listened to me. Didn't like my $ugge$tions for $teps forward.
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I won't be watching the public relations propaganda tonight, folks. Sorry.
"Obama to offer a modest agenda" by Peter Baker | New York Times, January 26, 2014
WASHINGTON — His ambitions in check and his eye on the calendar, President Obama intends to use his State of the Union address to put a difficult year behind him and reassert command before the capital is consumed with election-year politics.
It already is.
After five years in office, Obama has, by his own account, come to feel acutely the constraints on his power and the shrinking horizons before him — all of which makes his nationally televised speech to Congress on Tuesday a critical opportunity to drive an agenda that may yet shape his legacy.
Aww, poor war-criminal pwesident!
But perhaps more so than in any previous congressional address, Obama confronts the reality that, except for a possible overhaul of immigration, he has little chance of major legislative victories in the coming year. As a result, aides said, he will present a blueprint for “a year of action” on issues like income inequality and the environment that bypasses Congress and exercises his authority as president to the greatest extent possible.
He's not supposed to bypass Congress. He's an executive administrator!
“This presidency is not going to be defined from here forward by big legislative initiatives,” said Jeff Shesol, a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton whom this White House consulted. “Given that, he’s got to convey a sense of focus and forward momentum. He’s got a lot of time left in this presidency, and I think people will want to get the sense that he knows how to operate in this environment and that there is a strategy.”
Don't remind me.
After failing to push through gun control legislation and other priorities he raised in last year’s State of the Union address, Obama must take a different approach this year….
In an email to supporters Saturday, the president’s senior adviser, Dan Pfeiffer, characterized Obama’s coming message as “opportunity, action and optimism.”
Glad I'm not going to see the bs roll.
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Obama will still use the speech to push for an immigration overhaul, where Republicans have signaled that they may compromise, as well as for a higher minimum wage, more infrastructure spending, and an expansion of prekindergarten education, where the two sides are less likely to agree.
But Pfeiffer acknowledged the limits.
“The president will seek out as many opportunities as possible to work with Congress in a bipartisan way,” he wrote. “But when American jobs and livelihoods depend on getting something done, he will not wait for Congress.”
Why not? He's waited five years as more American jobs and livelihoods have been lost.
To counter Obama’s increased focus on economic disparities, Republicans are trying to turn the issue around on him, arguing that his own policies on jobs, deficit spending, regulations, and health care have exacerbated income inequality.
You BOTH are RESPONSIBLE, and we despise BOTH PARTIES that have BETRAYED America!
“The president has a lot of explaining to do,” Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri said Saturday in a Republican radio and Internet address. “If all he has to offer is more of the same, or if he refuses to acknowledge that his own policies have failed to work, the president is simply doing what many failed leaders have done before him: trying to set one group of Americans against another group of Americans.”
The key to ruling.
The address comes as Obama’s sense of possibility has contracted. A year after an intoxicating re-election victory, when he had a 57 percent approval rating, his support has fallen to 42 percent.
George W. Bush territory.
Within months, lawmakers will be absorbed by their own campaigns in the midterm elections, and after that, Washington will begin to turn its focus to the contest to succeed Obama.
These days, rather than talking grandly about saving the planet, Obama envisions a more modest place in the tide of history.
“At the end of the day, we’re part of a long-running story,” he told David Remnick of The New Yorker recently….
Obama suggested he hoped to plant seeds….
For Hillary Clinton.
The seemingly diminished expectations expressed in those comments surprised many in Washington, where presidents rarely acknowledge limits.
Concerned about the impression Obama had left, aides warned against overanalyzing his words and said he was reinvigorated after the setbacks of 2013….
Obama is hardly the first president to recognize the disparity between the perception and reality of his power. In his last year in office, George W. Bush was asked by an aide what had surprised him about being president. “How little authority I have,” he answered.
Such shit!
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"Aides say Obama willing to bypass Congress; State of Union to detail use of executive orders" by Emmarie Huetteman | New York Times, January 27, 2014
WASHINGTON — Aides to President Obama on Sunday offered a preview of the strategy of the president’s State of the Union address, emphasizing Obama’s willingness to bypass a gridlocked Congress to achieve his goals.
Sounds like a threat!
Daniel H. Pfeiffer, the president’s senior adviser, said the speech Tuesday would include proposals that he could pursue without Congress, wielding executive power as he did last summer with his three-pronged plan to address climate change.
“The president views the power of his presidency in two areas,” Pfeiffer said on the CNN’s “State of the Union.” “His pen, which is the executive orders, the presidential memorandums. Also the phone, where what he can do is he can pick up the phone, bring together American citizens and businesses to commit on key issues.”
It's called dictatorship!
Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” said, “The president sees this as a year of action, to work with Congress where he can and to bypass Congress where necessary to lift folks who want to come up into the middle class.”
Why did he wait five years and three elections?
Pfeiffer said on CNN that this approach was not intended to be “confrontational.” But Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, who plans to give his own unofficial response to Obama’s address, disagreed.
I won't be watching him, either.
“It sounds vaguely like a threat,” Paul said during an appearance on CNN. “And I think it also has a certain amount of arrogance in the sense that one of the fundamental principles of our country are the checks and balances, that it wasn’t supposed to be easy to pass legislation and you had to debate and convince people.”
And you couldn't have a guy just sign an order like a king!
Republican lawmakers said Sunday that they would be willing to work with the White House on smaller points of agreement.
Paul suggested, for example, that Congress could move forward on portions of an immigration overhaul if it were not for Democrats’ demanding an all-or-nothing approach to granting citizenship.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, cautioned on “Fox News Sunday” that his party’s willingness to compromise would extend only so far….
I'm so glad I no longer watch those programs.
The discussion of maneuvering around congressional gridlock comes less than two weeks before the Treasury Department expects to exhaust its authority to borrow money, potentially setting up another fiscal showdown on Capitol Hill….
See: Inaugurating Obama's Dictatorship
Debt will confirm dictatorship.
White House officials have said Obama would use the State of the Union speech to announce a series of executive actions he can take without congressional approval.
Oh, they are going to love that.
They will include expanding economic opportunity for middle-class workers in areas such as retirement security and job training. The officials expressed hope that these actions would press Congress to take further steps.
Obama is also expected to call for a higher minimum wage, more infrastructure spending, and an expansion of prekindergarten education, issues on which Democrats and Republicans are considered unlikely to agree.
The president will again use the speech to push for an immigration overhaul, an issue on which aides believe the administration and Republicans could reach a compromise.
Even if Obama does not convince lawmakers with his State of the Union message, he has a chance to frame the national conversation, an effort he will continue with a two-day trip to Maryland, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Tennessee.
Thanks for gassing up the planet on taxpayer dime for political purposes, a$$hole!
Although interest in the State of the Union has fallen — the television ratings for last year’s address were the second lowest in 20 years — it is still an opportunity to reach more than 30 million Americans unfiltered.
Unreal! Poor president doesn't get media coverage! Puh-leeze!
“For that one night, he’ll have the spotlight the way no other person in the country will have all year,” said Robert Schlesinger, author of “White House Ghosts,” a history of presidential speechwriters. “As limited as the powers of the bully pulpit are, especially in the communications age, that still ain’t nothing.”
That is what the speech will be.
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"Health site yet to gain favor, poll says" bAssociated Press, January 28, 2014
WASHINGTON — The federal health care website may be fixed, but President Obama’s new insurance markets have yet to win over most consumers.
Then again, it may not be fixed!
Negative perceptions of the health care rollout have eased, a new Associated Press-GfK poll finds. But overall, two-thirds of Americans say things still aren’t going well.
Of those who have tried to sign up, or who live with someone who has, 71 percent have encountered problems. But the share reporting success jumped to 40 percent from a meager 24 percent in December.
The poll was released with about 60 days left in open enrollment season. The administration is playing catch-up to meet its goal of signing 7 million people in insurance exchanges that offer subsidized private coverage to middle-class households.
So far, the markets have attracted an older crowd that tends to be more costly to cover. Younger people in the coveted 18-34 age group are still mainly on the sidelines.
While the poll did not find a turnaround for the health plan, the trend offers some comfort for supporters of the law….
Now it is the agenda-pushing media that is driving me crazy.
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More comfort:
"Boston bombing survivors to be Obama’s guests; They will attend State of Union with first lady" Globe staff and wires, January 28, 2014
WASHINGTON — Two of the men forever linked by last year’s Boston Marathon bombings will be guests of Michelle Obama for the State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
Jeff Bauman, who lost both legs in the attack, and Carlos Arredondo, who helped wheel him to safety, will attend the speech.
Gross, and all the more reason not to watch.
"Since the bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon, when Carlos Arredondo rushed from the VIP stands to clear barricades and make a tourniquet from a sweater sleeve that saved Jeff Bauman’s life, the 53-year-old has become the face of Boston Strong, seen by some as an almost mythic embodiment of courage in the face of terror. Already a public figure for more than a decade as the man who set himself ablaze after learning that his son was killed in Iraq and as a ubiquitous antiwar protester, he is now what some of his friends call Boston’s “comforter in chief.” It has become a full-time role, one that has brought celebrity and adoration, accolades, and perks both financial and emotional. Nearly every day since the attacks, Arredondo has been booked with public appearances."
Wow, isn't that really, really strange?
Related:
"The story told by Carlos Arredondo is a complete fabrication. Virtually every aspect of the tale he has told is demonstrably untrue and yet it has been readily accepted and repeated by the mainstream media."
See: The Boston Marathon Bombings: Fully Exposed
Yes, who could ever believe what you are seeing on your TV (from 9/11 to Sandy Hook to chemical weapons use in Syria and even the fireworks) is all staged and scripted fakery?
Now maybe you think I'm a lark of a conspiracy theorist, but I would advise you to look at links again.
The scene of the two in the immediate aftermath of the bombings became one of the iconic images, capturing both the chaos and courage of the day.
From his hospital bed, Bauman, 27, played a crucial role in helping investigators identify the Tsarnaev brothers as bombing suspects. Arredondo, 53, who made a tourniquet from a sweater sleeve that saved Bauman’s life, is now what some of his friends call Boston’s “comforter in chief.”
Their presence in the House chamber may be one indication that Obama will bring up the Boston bombings during his address. Those who are invited typically reinforce a point that the president makes during the speech.
Another guest will be Jason Collins, 35, of Los Angeles, who in April became the first active male athlete on a major American sports team to come out as openly gay.
Collins played 12 years in the NBA, including one with the Boston Celtics. He went to the playoffs nine times and made the finals twice. The president said Collins’s announcement marked a point of progress for the gay community.
I guess gay people are not homeless or hungry.
In his address, Obama will frame an economic argument that Democrats hope will help carry them to victory in November.
Although not explicitly political, the State of the Union speech gives Obama an opportunity to issue a rallying cry for economic fairness and expanded opportunity — issues Democrats believe will resonate in races across the country.
Unreal!
“It will be interpreted as the Democratic agenda,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster. “He can frame up the 2014 choice.”
That choice, as Obama portrays it, is between an America where all segments of the population have opportunities to improve their lot, and one where prosperity is disproportionately enjoyed by a select few.
Related: Majority of Congress members now millionaires
That may have something to do with this:
"A strong stock market and better business climate have continued to concentrate American wealth in the top 1 percent of earners."
All enabled by government policies!
In advance of the speech, Obama has persistently sought to focus the nation’s attention on trends of inequality and lower social mobility that he’s pledging to address in his final years in office.
PFFFT!
To be sure, not all Democrats will echo Obama’s themes in their campaigns. Many may focus on regional issues or their personal characteristics.
But with the economy still a top issue for most voters, Democrats see issues of economic fairness and expanding access to the middle class as their best chance to reach a broad swath of the population that feels left behind in the economy.
“Middle-class security is the defining issue of our time,” said Representative Steve Israel, Democrat of New York, who chairs the House Democrats’ campaign arm. “Our candidates are going to talk about what priority makes more sense for the middle class: Increasing the minimum wage or decreasing taxes for the wealthiest? Those contrasts are imperative and revealing.”
Says it all, doesn't it?
When Obama invited Senate Democrats to a meeting at the White House this month, much of the session focused on how Democrats wanted Obama to focus on the notion of expanding economic opportunity in his State of the Union, said a White House official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss a private meeting and requested anonymity.
"Obama’s legislative affairs director, Katie Beirne Fallon, and his senior adviser, Dan Pfeiffer, consulted closely with Democratic leadership in the House and Senate as they planned the speech and this year’s legislative agenda, the official said."
Why would the web version cut that printed paper part?
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The photo was cropped?!!!
Also see: Boston Marathon route needs more protection from cars
Next race will bring car bombs to Boston?
What won't merit much of a mention tonight:
"Obama’s 2014 foreign-policy challenges" by Nicholas Burns | Globe Columnist, January 02, 2014
There will be no rest for the weary as President Obama confronts a daunting foreign policy agenda in 2014. Obama had the success of the Iran talks and a deal to remove Syria’s chemical weapons this past autumn. But as the new year begins, he also faces criticism by close friends Israel and Saudi Arabia of what they see as uncertain and indecisive leadership.
Here are the most significant global crises in Obama’s foreign-policy inbox that will determine whether the year ahead will bring war or peace to the world’s most troubled regions.
Somehow it always seems to bring more war.
The growing China-Japan rivalry. Relations between Beijing and Tokyo are as bitter as any time in memory. China’s assertive President Xi Jinping and Japan’s nationalist Prime Minister Shintaro Abe are on a collision course over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The United States is rightly backing Japan. But look for Obama to counsel the two countries to exercise restraint to avoid a miscalculation that could spark a naval or air conflict. He also needs to support the Philippines and Vietnam over equally tendentious Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Related: Accepting Chinese Control of the East China Sea
Same goes for the SOUTH CHINA SEA!
Four fires burning in the Middle East. Obama wants to pivot to Asia but keeps getting caught in the quicksand of the Middle East. Four crises will test him once more in 2014:
■ In Syria, can Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry work with cynical and not-always trustworthy Syria, Russia, and Iran to forge a ceasefire? Without one, Syria’s 9 million refugees will continue to suffer in the brutal conflict.
From guy who told him invade Syria and clean up the mess (may still happen based on the Geneva talks).
■ Key US ally Egypt appears headed for a bloody, divisive 2014. The military dictatorship has extinguished the 2011 revolution and recently branded the powerful Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group. That will cause continued tension, violence, and perhaps even civil war in the Arab world’s keystone state.
And the U.S. backs the military coup government all the way.
■ As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict enters its 66th year, Kerry refuses to give up his improbable but courageous bid for peace. He arrives in Israel Thursday with a plan to restart talks preceded by release of Palestinian prisoners. The road to peace is long, but critics may not want to count out Kerry just yet.
Related: The Kerry Chronicles: How Many Palestinian Lives is Pollard Worth?
The Kerry Chronicles: Failed Framework
He's still building bridges (while Israel builds more settlements).
■ Stopping Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons remains the key US priority for the next year. Can Obama and Kerry build on November’s interim deal to move Tehran toward a final agreement? Iran is a supreme test of Obama’s belief that diplomacy can avert another Middle East war and perhaps even lead to eventual peace with our longtime nemesis.
Will Israel let them build on a deal or attack iran first?
The Afghan war. Entering its 13th year in Afghanistan, the United States will withdraw the bulk of our troops by summer. But will Afghanistan’s mercurial President Hamid Karzai permit a small US force to stay to battle terrorists and prevent a Taliban resurgence? If not, years of US sacrifices since 9/11 are at risk.
Coping with Vladimir. Russia’s megalomaniacal Putin is riding high due to his pivotal role in the Syria chemical weapons deal, Ukraine, and the Sochi Olympics.
And he must be brought down and brought down hard!
Related: Black Widows Spinning Webs in Sochi
Explains a lot of things, doesn't it?
Can Obama find a way to reset yet again their famously difficult relationship? It would be a smart play, as Putin can help to deliver an Iran deal and an even more elusive ceasefire in Syria.
Fixing a deteriorating US-India relationship. Once a key US strategic partner, India is now locked in an acrimonious dispute with Washington over what it charged was demeaning US law enforcement treatment of an Indian diplomat. Delhi’s ill-advised retaliation against US diplomats in India has thrown the entire relationship into a tailspin. And April elections may well bring the opposition BJP party to power. Its controversial leader, Narendra Modi, has been denied a visa by the United States for the past decade on human rights grounds. Sorting out this suddenly complicated relationship is a must for the Obama team.
Related: Indian Diplomat Sexually Abused by AmeriKan Security Services
Civil wars in Africa. Raging conflicts in South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Somalia, and Congo will require strong and active US leadership with the UN and key African countries in the months ahead to stop the bloodshed.
Related: Fighting reported in South Sudan despite cease-fire
That's all about oil.
Coup in Central African Republic is Reversed
One bit of good news for him.
With these and other crises, Obama will be tested globally as never before in 2014. The world expects a fully engaged and self-confident superpower to take charge. Providing that steady, leading voice will be Obama’s singular challenge in the year ahead.
Expects or fears?
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They never mention he is a former Bush administration official.
