Pres. Obama to Address the Nation on Budget Issues

Barreling ahead on a mammoth agenda, Barack Obama is ready to offer a detailed sketch of the first year of his presidency, casting the nation's bleeding economy as a tangle of tough, neglected problems.

In a prime-time speech from the House of Representatives, Obama will make his case Tuesday that much more has to be done to turn around the economy — a message he knows he must explain.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that Obama will provide more details about his financial stability plan and measures to help the economy while delivering "a sober assessment about where we are and the challenges we face."

"He'll say we're on the right path to meeting these challenges, and there are better days ahead," Gibbs said.

Already, the nation is nearly dizzy keeping up with what's emerged from Washington during Obama's first weeks as president, from a staggering $787 billion stimulus plan to a revamped bailout for the financial sector to a rescue plan for struggling homeowners.

The president has also said reforming health care, including burgeoning entitlement programs, is a huge priority.

Although Obama is too new in office to be delivering a State of the Union address, his speech will have all the same trappings. It comes two days before he delivers a budget blueprint to Congress. Unlike that detail-driven document, his address will be broad, spelling out what he wants and how he will do it.

The economy, in its worst tailspin in decades, will dominate. Obama will touch on foreign policy, but that will largely be left for other upcoming speeches. This will not be a rollout of one policy initiative after another.

Obama will make clear that the trillion-dollar-plus deficit is one he "inherited." In other words, he wants to remind people that President George W. Bush and the previous Congress left him a big hole, forcing him to pursue the costly stimulus package.

The president will push for movement on ensuring health coverage for all Americans. He will seek to expand educational opportunities, and diversify the country's energy sources, and contain sacred entitlements like Social Security, and halve the soaring budget deficit in four years.

Interesting that only a Democrat would feel that if you inherit a trillion dollar deficit that the way to get out of it is to spend almost a trillion dollars more -- a trillion dollars that will actually cost taxpayers more than 1.5 trillion, and which the non-partisan congressional budget office says will NOT stimulate the economy and WILL hurt the economy in the long run.

So what is in Pres. Obama's new plan?

A $410 billion spending bill unveiled yesterday will fund the US government for the rest of the fiscal year - and kick in $2.2 million for the Center for Grape Genetics in upstate New York.

The measure comes just days after the $787 billion economic-stimulus package was signed; it'll be voted on by the House later this week.

But it's not all nuts and bolts - there's plenty of pork, like the millions for the grape center in Geneva, NY, thanks to Sen. Chuck Schumer, and Reps. Maurice Hinchey and Michael Arcuri.

Other New York earmarks include: $143,000 for Manhattan's American Ballet Theatre "for educational activities"; $214,000 for Stony Brook University "to teach scientists how to effectively communicate with the public and the press"; and $950,000 for a Poughkeepsie pedestrian bridge.

The measure also includes $500,000 for a Senate "pilot program" to defray the cost of mass-mail postcards notifying constituents of town-hall meetings.

Its a shame. The democrats cannot help themselves in loading up on pet projects and pork. There is no fiscal responsibility in Washington. While the President held a "fiscal responsibility summit" yesterday, Michelle Malkinpoints out, the President has been anything but:

President Obama just finished up his opening remarks at a “fiscal responsibility” summit to address skyrocketing budget deficits.

How about paying your own damn bills first, Mr. President?

There’s yet another new report of Obama campaign/DNC unpaid bills — this one from Springfield, Illinois. Obama owes the city at least $65,000 for overtime and other costs.

That’s in addition to the nearly $2 million Obama still owes the city of Chicago.

And the $24,000 Obama owes the city of Philadelphia.

Deadbeatonomics for He, but not for thee.

Change -- all that is left in my pockets after an Obama Administration -- that you can believe in.