Breaking: Obama's SOTU Will Be Same-Old, Same-Old, with Cliched GOP Response
From Politico, a vague preview of the speech that will itself be a vague preview of the next year:
Obama aides have already forecast that the president's message will describe a sharp philosophical divide on the proper role of government in the modern economy, with Obama leading Democrats in insisting that government promote greater opportunity and fairness. …
Democratic strategists say Obama has been laying the groundwork for months for an election-year agenda — and possibly a second term — that is focused squarely on the economy and the middle class.
What is this, 2000? 1980? I don't know what is more frustrating and tedious: All the talk about the "middle class" or the pretense of a grand divide over the "role of government in the modern economy."
Lest we forget, last year, Barack Obama laid out a vision for the next decade of federal spending. At the end of that term, he wanted the feds to be spending $5.7 trillion a year, up from about $3.8 trillion. The GOP passed a budget in the House that covered the same time frame. It envisioned spending $4.7 trillion a year. Each proposal relies upon completely delusional levels of government revenues.
The idea that there is a "sharp philosophical divide" between the GOP and the Democrats when it comes to the "proper role of government in the modern economy" is not simply false. It helps to explain how all DC does is talk about spending less and all it keeps doing is spending more.