Wednesday, February 25, 2009

New Math

I didn’t get to watch the President’s speech last night, nor get to take part in all the fun over at The Conservative Wahoo. I’ve been in Key Largo, FL for the past few days on a company award trip (some companies still do that), and will take a few more days here with Mrs. Goldwater to recover.

I imagine the speech was filled with lofty platitudes; heavy on the rhetoric and light on the details – as is usually the case in State of the Union addresses. This is where Obama really shines, so I would expect nothing less than an hour or so of captivating oratory.

And judging by the media recaps this morning, I’m not far off the mark. Universal health, universal education – lots of goodies in Obama Claus’ bag. But what keeps nagging me is this – pledging massive increases in spending, no new taxes for 95% of Americans (or those making less than $250,000), a cure for cancer while at the same time reducing the deficit by half appears to me at least to be an extremely difficult, if not impossible goal.

This New Math is built upon some very optimistic assumptions – assumptions that would have been rightly ridiculed by democrats in a republican administration.

1 comment:

Mudge said...

I couldn't watch it either, but for health reasons. At age 50-whatever-I-am-I-can't-really-recall, I need to watch my blood pressure. Approximately 3.7 seconds into watching Pelosi bouncing up and down like a spoiled little kid about to get the ice cream she'd earlier been screaming about, I felt it necessary to change the channel. BTW, sent your Blogging Bro a clip from last night's Sermon on the Mount where Obama said, "...this deficit that we inherited..." then paused as Pelosi stood, with Biden, to applaud and giggle (Pardon me a moment: "Honey, could you bring me my blood pressure pills and a glass of water?" Sorry, I'm back now). I couldn't help but notice that every single one of the top three in accession for the Presidency, conveniently framed in the camera, with wonderfully smug looks on their faces, were during a majority of the last Administration, the people who passed the budgets to the President for signature. For such a smart man, I believe our Great Orator may have misused "inherited" for "bequeathed".