Speech Highlights? I've Got Two
If there were more specific bits to fly your flag at anything higher than half-mast, leave them in the comments. Full speech transcript here.
First highlight:
My administration has also begun to go line by line through the federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective programs. As you can imagine, this is a process that will take some time. But we're starting with the biggest lines. We have already identified two trillion dollars in savings over the next decade.
In this budget, we will end education programs that don't work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don't need them.
Here's Reason on unilaterally ending ag subsidies. Then there was this:
Finally, because we're also suffering from a deficit of trust, I am committed to restoring a sense of honesty and accountability to our budget. That is why this budget looks ahead ten years and accounts for spending that was left out under the old rules – and for the first time, that includes the full cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. For seven years, we have been a nation at war. No longer will we hide its price.
Here's the groundbreaking Veronique de Rugy cover story on the "Trillion Dollar War" that I hope like hell Obama was referring to.
There was much to dislike about this speech, most notably (for me anyway) the effortless way in which the new president talked out of both sides of his mouth. We will not govern in anger! No more drapes for you, fatcats! Etc. More on which tomorrow.
