Obama Says Critics Making 'The Same Argument' Despite Better Economy
Barack Obama let down his graying presidential hair a little bit on Wednesday. He also joked about coloring it.
Speaking to the City Club of Cleveland, Obama seemed to be in a reflective mood. During the question-and-answer period, he was asked by a seventh-grader what advice he would give to himself now, if he could go back to his first day in office.
"Maybe I should have told myself to start dyeing my hair now," Obama said. "Before people noticed, because by a year in, it was too late."
Obama also suggested he should have moved more quickly to close the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before political resistance mounted. And he should have done more to explain the depth and duration of the oncoming recession.
"I think I might have done a better job in preparing people so they kind of knew what was coming," Obama said. "That would have helped explain why we needed to pass the Recovery Act, or why we needed to invest in the auto industry."
Many of those decisions remain controversial six years later, even as the economic recovery is well underway.
"At every step that we've taken over the past six years we were told our goals were misguided; they were too ambitious; that my administration's policies would crush jobs and explode deficits, and destroy the economy forever," Obama said. "Remember that?"
He argues that strong job growth, falling energy prices and shrinking federal deficits should have quieted his critics. But they haven't.
"Sometimes we don't do the instant replay, we don't run the tape back and then we end up having the same argument going forward," Obama said.
Indeed, the old arguments are in full force this week in Washington, as the new Republican-majority Congress tries to put its stamp on federal tax and spending policies. House and Senate budget committees unveiled draft budgets that would sharply curtail federal spending and repeal the president's signature health care law.
"This balanced budget delivers to hard-working taxpayers a more effective, efficient and accountable government which supports Americans when it must and gets out of the way when it should," said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.
The House budget plan calls for even deeper spending cuts. It would also replace Medicare with a voucher-type system for future retirees.
The president called that a broken record.
"We know now that the gloom-and-doom predictions that justified this budget three, four, five years ago were wrong. Despite the economic progress, despite the mountains of new evidence, their approach hasn't changed," Obama said.
In a lighter moment, Obama was asked about his bracket for the NCAA basketball tournament. He has picked top-seeded Kentucky to win, but confessed his other predictions are not as well-informed as they might be.
"I haven't won since my first year in office," Obama joked. "Clearly, I'm not spending as much time watching college basketball as I once did."
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Transcript
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
President Obama is defending his economic track record even as Republicans in Congress are busy trying to change the government's fiscal course. House and Senate committees released draft budgets this week. Both would sharply reduce government spending and take one more run at repealing the president's signature health care law. Obama says his policies have been working, and he accuses Republicans of turning to failed policies from the past. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: President Obama says despite all the squabbling in Washington, the U.S. is enjoying strong job growth, falling energy prices and shrinking government deficits. He says the economy is now well-positioned for the future. Seventh-grader Alura Winfrey asked the president what he's learned during the six years he's been in office.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ALURA WINFREY: If you could go back to the first day of your first term, what advice would you give yourself?
(LAUGHTER)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: That's a good question.
HORSLEY: Obama thought for a moment, then said he'd try to do a better job of explaining just how deep the recession was and how prolonged the recovery would be. In other words, he would've worked harder to sell the administration's economic policies, often controversial both then and now.
(SOUNDBITE ARCHIVED RECORDING)
OBAMA: We were told our goals were misguided, they were too ambitious, that my administration's policies would crush jobs and explode deficits and destroy the economy forever. Remember that?
HORSLEY: Obama says it's important that people do remember now that the stock market has doubled and the unemployment rate's been cut nearly in half.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
OBAMA: 'Cause sometimes - yeah, we don't do the instant replay. We don't run the tape back. And then we end up having the same argument going forward.
HORSLEY: Indeed, those old arguments are in full force as the new all-Republican Congress tries to put its stamp on federal tax and spending policies. Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, unveiled a blueprint yesterday that would cut spending by more than $5 trillion over the next decade.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
SENATOR MIKE ENZI: This balanced budget delivers to hard-working taxpayers a more effective, efficient and accountable government which supports Americans when it must and gets out of the way when it should.
HORSLEY: The House budget plan calls for even deeper spending cuts. It would also replace Medicare with a voucher-type system for future retirees. The two GOP budgets differ in their approach to military spending, which is likely to be a source of friction within the Republican Party. But both budgets call for a repeal of Obamacare. The president argues that would be a mistake. He notes the number of uninsured Americans has dropped by more than a third since the law took effect, while per capita health care spending is now growing at the slowest rate in half a century.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
OBAMA: Health care was the single biggest factor driving up our projected deficits. It's now the single biggest factor driving them down.
HORSLEY: The federal deficit is less than 3 percent of the overall economy, a level many analysts consider manageable. Still, congressional Republicans are determined to see further reductions in red ink, even as they resist any increase in taxes.
With Republicans now in control of both the House and Senate, there's likely to be a lot more fiscal wrangling with the White House. Obama told his seventh-grade questioner yesterday about another piece of advice he'd give his 2009 self - start dying your hair early. After a year in office, he joked, it was already too late. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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