President Obama mounted a staunch defense today of the economic stimulus plan now before Congress, chiding critics who want it to focus primarily on tax cuts and asserting that Americans rejected their theories in the November elections.
In an appearance at the White House with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, Obama urged Congress to act quickly on the stimulus package, which has come under attack from Senate Republicans and some Democrats alarmed by its roughly $900 billion price tag.
"We know that even if we do everything we should, this crisis was years in the making, and it will take more than weeks or months to turn things around," Obama said. "But make no mistake: A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession, a less robust recovery, and a more uncertain future. Millions more jobs will be lost. More businesses will be shuttered. More dreams will be deferred."
Oh yeah...
Proof, once again, that the man's read The Defining Moment. Action, and action now.
But my favorite moment, one reflective of the campaign, is his turning toward the Conversative talking point, and finally…finally…counterpunching.
Apparently referring to Republican foes of the stimulus plan, Obama said recent criticisms of it "echo the very same failed economic theories that led us into this crisis in the first place: the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems, that we can ignore fundamental challenges like energy independence and the high cost of health care, that we can somehow deal with this in a piecemeal fashion and still expect our economy and our country to thrive."
Obama added: "I reject those theories. And so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change."
Translation. I won. Get over it. Lead. Follow...or prepare to get rolled over.
