Driving down the same road.

squashed:

“These are the folks whose policies helped devastate our middle class. They drove our economy into a ditch. And we got in there and put on our boots and we pushed and we shoved and we were sweating and these guys were standing, watching us, sipping on a Slurpee. And they were pointing at us saying, “How come you’re not pushing harder? How come you’re not pushing faster?” And then when we finally got the car up—and it’s got a few dings and a few dents, it’s got some mud on it, we’re going to have to do some work on it—they point at everybody and say, “Look at what these guys did to your car!” After we got it out of the ditch! And then they’ve got the nerve to ask for the keys back. I don’t want to give them the keys back. They don’t know how to drive!”

—

Pres. Obama on Republicans in yesterday’s Labor Day speech in Milwaukee, 9/7/10 (via sophiologist)

Ok, so it’s cutesy to bash on the opposing team, but let’s not pretend that this zinger really makes any kind of a good point.

For instance, Obama uses the word “we” like he was out there actually starting businesses and making the hard decisions to cut back on non-necessities. If you ask me, small businesses drive the economy of the US, not the government. There are folks opening their little clothing stores, schools, print shops, and web design studios. Those folks are taking risks and making it happen. The government takes no risk in all this. The government merely demands money from some (who now can’t expand or buy things) and give it to another group. I guess politicians like to take credit for other people’s hard work.

Also, about the “now we’re going to drive” stuff: He’s doing the exact same thing that the Republicans had been doing - increasing social welfare programs, passing more regulations, running up a huge deficit, and generally increasing the size and scope of government. Here’s my question: If it didn’t work for the Republicans, why would it work any better for the Democrats? And with the stuff the White House is trying to ram through, we hear stuff like “We need to pass this now and look into the details later.” That’s like saying, “Hey, look, we can drive just as erratically as the Republicans, only we will do it with the pedal to the floor and we’ll do it without looking at the road.”