During the State of the Union address the President’s made a pledge for closing tax loopholes on the wealthy, and in theory that sounds like a reasonable initiative. However, that would almost assuredly guarantee the elimination of the mortgage interest tax deduction, the charitable gifts deduction and to a lesser extent the state and local tax deduction, and each of these is economically helpful to mainstream taxpayers. But he did insist that he would sign legislation that would make a politician’s investments subject to the same insider-trading restrictions, conflict of interest rules and penalties that are imposed on regular taxpayers. While long overdue, it should be a completely supportable action by Congress. We’ll see…

He also called for action that would reduce the size of government and eliminate the redundancy of a number of agencies. But then he promptly announced the formation of a new mortgage crisis unit that will be headed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. The unit’s mission will be to investigate mortgage misconduct and illegal activities, but it’s clearly yet another expansion of big government and an blatant conflict with the genuineness of his words.

So why is Obama is on a post-State-of-the-Union junket in states that are critical to his re-election by attempting to sell the voters on all of the proposals highlighted in his speech. He’ll be traveling on Air Force One during the next three days in the following states: Michigan (16 electoral votes), Arizona (11), Colorado (9), Iowa and Nevada (6 each). But why is he allowed, and apparently comfortable, with the massive cost of using this aircraft for political gain? His speech called on all Americans to essentially suck it up and do their part in helping overcome the ongoing economic downturn. Nonetheless, his actions don’t align with his words.

By the end of his speech it was clearly apparent that it was more about launching his re-election campaign than about focusing on worthwhile legislative programs. Realistically, very little is going to be accomplished on his “to-do” list during 2012. In effect, business as usual in Washington with the leader of the country spending much of his time focusing on getting to remain in the oval office.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.