Inside Obama’s Rhetoric by Robert Samuelson
Inside Obama’s Rhetoric
By ROBERT SAMUELSON
February 20, 2008
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Whatever one thinks of these ideas, they’re standard goodie-bag politics: something for everyone. They’re so similar to many Clinton proposals that her campaign put out a news release accusing him of plagiarizing. With existing budget deficits and the costs of Mr. Obama’s “universal health plan,” the odds of enacting his full package are slim. A favorite Obama line is that he will tell “the American people not just what they want to hear, but what we need to know.” Well, he hasn’t so far.
Consider the retiring baby boomers. A truth-telling Mr. Obama might say: “Spending for retirees — mainly Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — is already nearly half the federal budget. Unless we curb these rising costs, we will crush our children with higher taxes. Reflecting longer life expectancies, we should gradually raise the eligibility ages for these programs and trim benefits for wealthier retirees. Both Democrats and Republicans are to blame for inaction. Waiting longer will only worsen the problem.”
Instead, Mr. Obama pledges not to raise the retirement age and to “protect Social Security benefits for current and future beneficiaries.” This isn’t “change”; it’s sanctification of the status quo.
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The contrast between his broad rhetoric and his narrow agenda is stark, and yet the press corps — preoccupied with the political “horse race” — has treated his invocation of “change” as a serious idea rather than a shallow campaign slogan. He seems to have hypnotized much of the media and the public with his eloquence and the symbolism of his life story. The result is a mass delusion that Obama is forthrightly engaging the nation’s major problems when, so far, he isn’t.