Hmmm...
EMBARGOED FOR 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Monday, 1-25-10 Obama Turns Focus to Middle Class, Addressing Voter Anger
By Christi Parsons and Peter Nicholas, Reporting from Washington
January 25, 2010
President Obama, moving to refocus his agenda on Americans' anger over the tattered shape of their pocketbooks, is preparing new initiatives for federal belt-tightening and aid to middle class families on problems ranging from childcare and student loans and to retirement savings and assistance with aging relatives.
The new priorities are expected to dominate Obama's State of the Union address Wednesday, but the first concrete demonstration of the change came Monday at a White House meeting where the President and Vice President Joe Biden announced a set of proposed tax changes and other steps that were aimed at middle-class Americans.
"None of these steps alone will solve all the challenges facing the middle class," Obama said. "But hopefully some of these steps will reestablish some of the security that's slipped away in recent years. Because in the end, that's how Joe and I measure progress -- not by how the markets are doing, but by how the American people are doing. It's about whether they see some progress in their own lives."
Obama promised to "keep fighting to rebuild our economy so that hard work is once again rewarded, wages and incomes are once again rising, and the middle class is once again growing.''
On the soaring federal deficit, which polls show is a major factor in voters' discontent, Obama will announce on Wednesday that the budget blueprint he files next week will contain a "hard freeze" on discretionary spending that lasts through 2013, an effort his advisors liken to the fiscal discipline average families impose on themselves every day.
The State of the Union, delivered to a joint session of Congress and the nation at large, will also define the key foreign policy goals of Obama's second year in office, aides said, and offer new proposals to improve transparency in government.
SNIP
More at the source link. But in highlighting a package of proposed tax credits, investment regulations and employer requirements, Obama will begin rolling out his strategy for trying to blunt a threatened Republican resurgence in next November's congressional elections – a strategy centered on the economic plight of average families. "That sense of angst," said Obama Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, "is what drove him to seek office. It is something we have focused on in his year in the White House . . . and a big part of what we will do in 2010 and the rest of the presidency." How successful Obama is with the middle class tax benefits laid out Monday and the more extensive proposals planned for the State of the Union, may go a long way toward determining the shape and scope of the remainder of his presidency. With his job approval ratings in decline and political horizon darkening in recent days, Obama is fighting to keep his Democratic majorities in Congress through the fall elections. That means persuading disillusioned voters to reinvest in him and his party for another two years.
Isn’t this what he said around noon today?
Man - if that’s all it is - what a load!
Hmmm...
Obama could start with providing his long form birth certificate, adoption records, repatriation documents, selective service registration, all school records, financial aid and scholarship records, college transcripts, law records, passport and travel info., and full medical records.
How's that for a start on transparency?
And they needed an embargo on that tripe, why?
With the way they cook the books, a three year freeze on discretionary spending might only mean they’re redefining the word “discretionary.”