When President Obama was in Trinidad last week, he did something odd. Instead of talking about what he was doing to forge new relationships with Latin American neighbors, or creating new alliances, or standing American ground on a fundamental principle, he let loose with a Saturday address announcing that he would order his Cabinet to come up with ideas on how to reduce wasteful spending.
Was it to distract attention from those photos of Obama cavorting with Hugo Chavez? Perhaps. As if on cue, the chattering class at the news networks took the bait and devoted weekend coverage to Obama’s edict. Newspapers across American put the story on the front page of weekend editions.
Was it a rhetorical bone thrown to the half million tea party attendees who gathered at anti-tax rallies on tax day? Also possible, for while MSNBC poked fun at them, their IQ and sexual habits, Fox News saw its ratings skyrocket for its coverage of Americans disgruntled by the prospect of higher federal taxes and red sea deficits.
On Monday Obama held a meeting and told his cabinet to find and cut $100 million in waste from Obama’s $ 3.6 trillion dollar budget. That’s like telling a family living on $100,000 a year to find and cut $2.81 in wasteful spending.
The tea party types will not be amused. Conservative talk radio will guffaw. And serious columnists will soon be offering examples of government programs that don’t work, should be scuttled, and citing ways Obama could cut a lot more than three thousandth of one per cent of the federal budget.
Obama may regret what he did to alter the course of a weekend news cycle. For in throwing a bone to the tea partiers he put on open display the shallowness of his commitment and the disingenuousness of his demand. Indeed, his press secretary was on the defensive on Monday, as the main stream media ridiculed the gesture. “Only in Washington is $100 million not a lot of money,” said Robert Gibbs as he absorbed the ribbing from a reporter. Right. And only to Obama is $10 trillion in new national debt not a big deal.
Obama just threw gas on the spark ignited on tax day.
