President Obama's 2012 Campagn Gets Underway With Petulant Speech, Unimpressive Budget Proposal at George Washignton University

President Obama took time out from his busy schedule on Wednesday to promote the upcoming Atlas Shrugged movie during an address at George Washington University.

Wait....what? He was being serious? Damn- that's unfortunate.

Several days after announcing his campaign for re-election, a government shutdown was narrowly averted and House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan (R, WI-1) unveiled a budget proposal that would cut government spending by $4 trillion over the next 10 years, President Obama had the opportunity to show the public he was serious about this country's growing debt but instead decided to double down on the same rhetoric that cost his party control of the House last year. Here are some of the highlights (and I use the term loosely) with commentary from me where I thought appropriate:

In the speech at George Washington University, he positioned his spending plan as a more "compassionate" alternative to one introduced last week by Ryan. He applauded Republicans for putting a plan on the table to address entitlements, but the praise stopped there.

"The way this plan achieves those goals would lead to a fundamentally different America than the one we've known certainly in my lifetime," Obama said, calling the GOP plan "deeply pessimistic." He suggested Republicans were giving up on basic functions of government.

"It's a vision that says if our roads crumble and our bridges collapse, we can't afford to fix them. [Wait wait wait wait.....hold the phone- if you want to talk about infrastructure, THEN WHAT THE FUCKING HELL WAS THE STIMULUS SUPPOSED TO BE USED FOR!?- NANESB!]

If there are bright young Americans who have the drive and the will but not the money to go to college, we can't afford to send them," Obama said of the Republican plan.

"It's a vision that says America can't afford to keep the promise we've made to care for our seniors."

The president claimed his proposal would cut $4 trillion from the deficit in 12 years or less. He drew several lines in the sand as he explained how he planned to get there.

Accusing Republicans of cutting services to seniors and poor children while cutting taxes for the rich, Obama said: "That's not right, and that's not going to happen as long as I'm president." [oh good- so we can look forward to this happening sometime in January 2013 then? Please go away you colossal asshat- NANESB!]

The president's proposal would deal with entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid, but avoid the major changes being pushed by Ryan. The president opposes turning Medicaid into a block-grant program for states and making Medicare seniors purchase government-subsidized insurance, as Ryan proposed. Rather, he vowed to make other changes he claims will extract more than $300 billion in savings from those programs over the next decade. Plus he pushed cuts in discretionary spending, including to defense. [Of course! All military spending is wasteful- until Obama decides to start lobbing cruise missiles at Libya- NANESB!]

But where Obama departed most sharply from Republicans was his call for rolling back the Bush tax cuts for the most well-off Americans -- meaning a tax hike for households making more than $250,000, or the top 2 percent of wage-earners. Republicans and Democrats had agreed to extend all the Bush tax cuts for two years, but Obama said Wednesday, "I refuse to renew them again" for the top tier. [Gee- who didn't see that coming?- NANESB!]

"The most fortunate among us can afford to pay a little more. I don't need another tax cut," he said [how generous of the guy who hasn't created a single job in his life- NANESB].

Here's the thing- exactly how much did the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act cost? The more conservative estimates put it at a minimum of $787 billion dollars. Unemployment wasn't supposed to go above 8% and all sorts of public work projects were going to create jobs as a result. Except after a few months in, the Obama Administration decided to change the metric to jobs saved or created- and that revision didn't even last until the end of 2009.

And instead of being used for infrastructure as it's cheerleaders had promised, the stimulus went instead to researching the effects of cocaine on monkeys or sexual activity of college freshmen at Syracuse University. Supposedly, in some very abstract manner, it worked and the economy is in a recovery- oh...and any budget proposal by the republicans would endanger this 'recovery'. Except this recovery features near double-digit unemployment, the dollar taking a beating, a cratering housing market as well as skyrocketing food, fuel and commodity prices.

Now, after all the funds that went towards in the 'stimulus' the President wants to raise taxes on 'wealthy' Americans (and make no mistake, the Democrat party has a very malleable definition of 'wealthy'). This is not unlike Bernie Madoff demanding a raise after bilking investors out of their life savings.

If this is part of President Obama's 2012 campaign strategy, I have to say that it is indeed very powerful and effective materiel......for whoever winds up running against him