Report: Obama to Call for More Spending at State of the Union

If the report on the upcoming State of the Union address is accurate, one will have to hand it to President Barack Obama. He is not one to go with the political flow when it comes to his own policy proposals.

Apparently, he will call for more stimulus spending.

"President Barack Obama will call for new government spending on infrastructure, education and research in his State of the Union address Tuesday, sharpening his response to Republicans in Congress who are demanding deep budget cuts, people familiar with the speech said.

"Mr. Obama will argue that the U.S., even while trying to reduce its budget deficit, must make targeted investments to foster job growth and boost U.S. competitiveness in the world economy. The new spending could include initiatives aimed at building the renewable-energy sector - which received billions of dollars in stimulus funding - and rebuilding roads to improve transportation, people familiar with the matter said. Money to restructure the No Child Left Behind law's testing mandates and institute more competitive grants also could be included.

"While proposing new spending, Mr. Obama also will lay out significant budget cuts elsewhere, people familiar with the plans say, though they will likely fall short of what Republican lawmakers have requested."

Republicans are, mildly speaking, skeptical, which they have every right to be. Back in early 2009, when the Obama administration was young and the air was filled with hope and change, a $900 billion stimulus package was rammed through the then-Democratic controlled Congress that was suppose to spend money on infrastructure, research, and renewable energy. For all the effect that spending had on the economy, it might as well have been piled up in a big mound and set on fire. Most of the money was spent on pork favored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Mind, the United States could well do with some repair work on its roads and bridges. Science research is generally a good investment. But Obama, more than any politician in the land, lacks the credibility necessary to push for such spending. Obama's fetish for green energy has become positively dangerous for the American economy, coupled as it is with a virtual jihad against more traditional modes of energy production, oil, natural gas, and coal.

Obama's spending proposals constitute another example of that old adage that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result. If the $900 billion stimulus package did not work, how does the President think that even more stimulus spending is going to have a different outcome?

President Obama did much good for himself in his recent call for more civil discourse at the memorial service/pep rally in Tucson, giving himself a much needed bump in the polls. But by reminding people why they turned on him in November in the first place by calling for more spending, Obama risks squandering all that. Whatever happened to the idea of going to the center and reaching across the aisle? It seems that the President may be all talk when it comes to that.

Source: Obama to Push New Spending, Damian Paletta, Jonathon Weisman and Laura Meckler, Wall Street Journal, January 22nd, 2011