In a speech that was more of his usual blaming, shaming and vaguely claiming he'll start leading soon; President Barack Obama took to the podium today to address the downgrade in our nation's credit rating. He started, almost an hour late, with a not-so-veiled swipe at his political opponents claiming the loss of our triple-A rating was caused by a lack of faith in our political system's "ability to act" and then he offered such nonsensical blather as "No matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a triple-A country."

Continued...

As he continued to speak (and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped below 11,000) he proposed more of the same failed policies with slightly new names. He advocated for more government spending on infrastructure to create jobs (previously known as a stimulus bill until his wasting of $800 billion made that word a no-no). He also promoted tax reform so those who can afford it pay more (previously known as increased revenue from millionaires and billionaires but still job-killing tax hikes no matter what the euphemism).

Of course real tax reform which would stimulate the economy without punishing success and lead to everyone paying their actual fair share was not mentioned. There could be a remote possibility that fairness and reason will be a part of the ideas the president promised to present "in the next few weeks". But that possibility became even more remote when, after patronizing the American people by referring to their grace and hard work in light of hard times, Mr. Obama declared, "All they ask is that we work just as hard here in this town to make their lives a little bit easier."

With that statement he reaffirmed his belief that despite all evidence to the contrary, government is the solution to our problems. As President Ronald Reagan famously said, government is the problem and until President Obama changes course or changes his address, chances are American lives will only get harder.