Apparently Obama Heard ‘Plan’ And Thought They Were Talking About A ‘Tan’ And Decided He Didn’t Need One

MONTHS later, the question remains the same: “WHERE’S YOUR DAMN PLAN, OBAMA?”

Let me go back and refresh the record:

Obama has set forth no plan to deal with anything whatsoever regarding the budget/debt ceiling crisis:

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH): Where’s the president’s plan? When is he going to lay his cards on the table?

Senator Marco Rubio understood this when he utterly destroyed Bob Schieffer on CBS’ “Face The Nation” program after Schieffer – in his masquerade as a “neutral reporter” cited the Obama talking point as the “objective” view:

“OK, so where’s the plan? Where’s the president’s plan? I’ve never seen a piece of paper with the president’s name on it that’s his plan to solve this crisis. I’ve seen press conferences. I’ve seen lectures that he’s given to the Congress. I’ve seen these press avails where the camera comes in and takes a bunch of pictures. I haven’t seen a plan. Where is the president’s plan?“

And President Obama’s failure to lead is undermining negotiations. From ABC’s “This Week”:

MS. AMANPOUR: You also heard what Jack Lew said if there was part of a big deal, it would involve entitlements –

SEN. KYL: But we have no idea what he’s talking about. That’s the problem. Republicans are not willing to make a deal based upon some vague commitment that, sometime in the future, the president might be willing to look at something that he won’t identify.

The following exhange in the White House Press Corps is simply utterly astounding:

ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: …If you basically have this Boehner plan that you say can’t get through the Senate and you’ve got a Reid plan that the Republicans don’t think you can get through the Senate or the House and you’re saying we want a compromise, what was the point of giving a prime-time address to the nation without an Obama plan and say neither of these other plans can work? Where’s his plan?

(CROSSTALK)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I understand the idea that there is not an Obama plan is like point…

HENRY: But there’s not one on paper.

CARNEY: …point No. 1 on the talking points issued by the Republican Party. I get it.

(CROSSTALK)

HENRY: No, no, no. That’s not a talking point. Show us the plan. It’s not a talking point. That’s unfair. Where’s the plan?

CROSSTALK)

CARNEY: First of all, the president put forward in detail his principles at George Washington University…

(CROSSTALK)

HENRY: Principles. Right. That’s not a plan.

CARNEY: …quite a lot of detail. The president stood before you, I can’t remember if you were here Friday night, some of you weren’t because you cut out early, but a lot of you were (GROANS FROM THE PRESS) and he put forward in detail with numbers what he’s willing to do. He then referred from the podium to the fact that White House officials would be briefing in detail.

It continued on with other reporters and it didn’t get any better for Carney or for Obama:

Today, under intense pressure to produce the President’s debt limit plan, the White House asked, “Do you need something printed for you?” House Republicans have put forth multiple plans (posted online and yes, available in print) to avoid default and get our fiscal house in order by cutting spending and implementing serious budget reforms.

We are seven days out from August 2nd and the Administration has yet to release a plan.

NOTE:

Chuck Todd: Why not release the last offer that Boehner made you? You said if you don’t want to release your own plan, release that one. If that’s the last deal he made and you are willing to go back with a few minor tweaks release it.

Jay Carney: We have shown a lot of leg on what we were proposing.

Chuck Todd: Where?

Jay Carney: From the podium, right here.

(Laughter)

Todd: Why not just release that plan?

Carney: You need something printed for you? You can’t write it down? There is ample detail.

Jake Tapper: That’s not a plan. It was details of a plan, but it wasn’t a plan in the same way we are getting a plan on the House side or on the Senate side.

Chuck Todd: We don’t know what the Medicare thing is, we don’t know what the Social Security part of this is …
….

Chuck Todd: Why not put it out there? You guys went before the American people last night and said call your Members of Congress we want a compromise. Well you had a plan you were making the case for, that sounded like the compromise. Release it to the public.

Watch the Full Exchange Here

All Obama has done is give demagogic speeches and press conferences. YOU CAN’T RUN THE COUNTRY ON A DAMN SPEECH. AND YOU CERTAINLY CAN’T RUN IT FROM THE PODIUM OF A PRESS SECRETARY DURING A DAMN PRESS CONFERENCE!!! SOMEBODY HAS TO ACTUALLY LEAD OR THIS COUNTRY IS DOOMED!!!

Republicans have been demanding Obama release a plan since forever ago.

It is now 855 days since Democrats bothered to pass any kind of a budget.  At all.

Versus Republicans, who have passed the Ryan budget plan and Cut, Cap and Balance.

Obama submitted a budget in May that was frankly so asinine that it was rejected 97-0 IN THE DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED SENATE.

The Christian Post put it this way:

Before his vacation at Martha’s Vineyard this month, Obama was on a three-state bus tour through rural parts of the Midwest. On that tour, he said he would present a plan to create jobs sometime in September.

“If you have a jobs plan, put it out,” former Democratic Tennessee congressman Harold Ford Jr., said on an Aug. 21 showing of NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Obama, apparently, did not have a completed plan at the time, but simply talked of having a jobs proposal in place soon. Reports are that White House administration officials are currently “scrambling” to come up with a plan by next week, according to The Washington Post.

That Washington Post article, dated August 29, begins:

“The White House scrambled Monday to finalize a new jobs initiative as President Obama nominated the last member of the economic team that will be charged with carrying it out.”

So, nope, it’s nearly three years into the Obama presidency, and they are still desperately pumping sunshine trying to “scramble” together some kind of a plan.

And in all likelihood, it won’t be a plan that has any chance of passing the bipartisan Congress, but rather a plan to further demagogue Republicans, as Obama postures by saying, “I had a plan that would have solved everything, but those terrorist Republicans held America hostage.”  The American people need jobs, but Obama needs to have some way to blame Republicans for his three years of failed economic policies.  And Obama’s job is more important than the tens of millions of Americans lack of jobs.

The Republicans ought to respond to this frankly ridiculous attack by saying, “If we had passed Obama’s plan, space aliens would have invaded and enslaved the human race.  And we’ve got every bit as much evidence to back up our hypothetical counterfactual scenario as Obama has for his.”  The sad fact of the matter is that Republicans can govern, but they can’t attack well; and Democrats can’t govern at all, but boy they sure can demagogue.

Tags: budget, jobs plan, Obama's plan, plan, scrambled