Obama must turn his focus to budget issues
Far be it from me to tell the public relations officials who occupy those West Wing offices as a reward for running one of the best presidential campaigns ever, but ...
If there is value in President Obama's knocking himself out to dramatize on prime-time TV his impotence in the face of the Gulf oil leak, I wish someone would explain it.
His multiple inspection trips to the afflicted and threatened states, his Oval Office TV address, and now his sit-down with the executives of BP have certainly established his personal connection with one of the worst environmental disasters in history. But the only thing people want to hear is word that the problem is on its way to being solved - and this message he cannot deliver.
The polls so far suggest that voters have a sensible and realistic perspective on all this and are not punishing Obama for failing to anticipate the drilling platform accident and not having a handy tool kit for its repair. To date, his approval numbers have barely moved.
But by dramatizing his belief that the struggle in the Gulf has become his main preoccupation, Obama has essentially ignored challenges that may be much more vital.
It was no White House official but Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee, a conservative Blue Dog Democrat, who called my attention to a short story in The Wall Street Journal last week reporting that U.S. companies are hoarding more cash - $1.84 trillion - than at any point in financial history.
The newspaper noted that the cash reserves had jumped 26 percent in one year, the largest increase since at least 1952. Cooper's point is that by stockpiling that vast amount against the possibility of a double-dip recession or another wave of bankruptcies, nervous executives are starving business of investments for expansion and freezing unemployment at a painfully high level.
Uncertainties in Washington about energy, taxes, financial regulation - to say nothing about bad news bulletins from Afghanistan and other overseas datelines - cloud the economic picture more than oil plumes pollute the Gulf.
But Obama seems focused on the relatively insignificant. With the administration and Congress whipsawed between those calling for more government-financed stimulus and those warning of deficits soaring out of control, the president has weighed in on the side of more stimulus spending.
Those involved in the Senate fight will tell you Obama might have had more success with his plea had he made it earlier, before the Senate passed its own version of an emergency spending bill. At this point, Republican and conservative Democratic opposition put the 60 votes needed to expand Sen. Tom Harkin's measure beyond reach.
Action shifted to the House, where Obama's plan to bail out state and local governments has been whittled into insignificance. While Obama asked for stimulus spending that might add $80 billion to the deficits over the next decade, opposition from budget-conscious members of both parties reduced the package being discussed by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer to about $10 billion - and some of this might be offset elsewhere.
"They're fighting over $10 billion, while $1.8 trillion is sitting out there," Cooper said.
While some claim the fiscal crisis in the states is exaggerated, Tuesday's edition of Stateline.org featured as its top 10 headlines reports from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, and Louisiana, detailing how they are "still struggling."
Obama may be excused for impotence in the Gulf. But no president can escape responsibility for the budget and the economy.
© 2010, Washington Post Writers Group