Obama hammers GOP over "radical vision"

President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks at The Associated Press luncheon during the ASNE Convention, Tuesday, April 3, 2012, in Washington.

/ AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Updated: 3:02 p.m. ET

(CBS News) -- Launching a broad argument for his re-election, President Obama on Tuesday painted a stark contrast between his vision for America's future and what he cast as the "radical" vision of the GOP, arguing that America is experiencing a "make-or-break moment," and that the choice between the two parties has never before been so "unambiguously clear."

Mr. Obama, in remarks before top editors at the Associated Press' annual luncheon, criticized Republicans for pursuing the same "trickle down" economic policies that he argued "nearly destroyed" America's financial system.

Echoing the populist theme of his State of the Union speech in January, Mr. Obama said that all Americans, regardless of class, should get a "fair shot" at success, and that everyone should be playing "by the same rules."

On the same day that voters in Maryland, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C. will head to the polls to vote in their respective Republican presidential primaries, Mr. Obama lambasted his GOP rivals for touting economic policies he dismissed as "laughable," and which he argued have proven disastrous in light of the 2008 financial crisis.

"We have been having the same argument with folks who keep pedaling some version of trickle-down economics," Mr. Obama said."They keep telling us that if we convert more of our investments in education and research and health care into tax cuts, especially for the wealthy, our economy will grow stronger... We're told that when the wealthy become even wealthier, and corporations are allowed to maximize their profits by whatever means necessary, it's good for America."

"The problem for advocates of this theory is that we've tried their approach on a massive scale. The results of their experiment are there for all to see," Mr. Obama said.

The president singled out GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney over his support for Paul Ryan's controversial 2013 Republican budget plan, and contended that the Republican party has become so conservative that if President Ronald Reagan was running for president today, he "could not get through a Republican primary."

"Ronald Reagan, who as I recall was not accused of being a tax-and-spend socialist, understood repeatedly that when the deficit started to get out of control that for him to make a deal he would have to propose both spending cuts and tax increases," Mr. Obama said. "He did it multiple times. He could not get through a Republican primary today."

The president delivered scathing criticism of the budget plan, which he criticized as a "Trojan horse disguised as deficit reduction plans" and a Republican attempt to "impose a radical vision" on America.

That plan, Mr. Obama argued, is "so far to the right" that it makes Newt Gingrich's 1990s-era Contract with America "look like the New Deal."

"It is thinly veiled social Darwinism," Mr. Obama said, of the proposal. "It is a prescription for decline."

The plan, Mr. Obama argued following a point-by-point examination, is "antithetical" to American values.

"It's antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everybody who's willing to work for it, a place where prosperity doesn't trickle down from the top but grows outward from the heart of the middle class," he said.

The budget plan, which Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan unveiled late last month, calls for steep spending limits and dramatic changes to Medicare. It has almost no chance of passing through the Democratic-controlled Senate, but it has swiftly set up an ideological battle between the left and the right over budget priorities as the 2012 election nears.

Asked about his remarks in an interview with CBS News' Chip Reid on Tuesday, Ryan contended that Mr. Obama's criticism of his plan sounded less like a Commander in Chief than a "campaigner in chief."

"What we've become accustomed to with the President, unfortunately and regrettably, is that instead of offering real solutions to fix this country's problems, he offers these baseless partisan attacks," Ryan said.

The Romney campaign also responded to the president's speech, saying in a statement that Mr. Obama's "own budget blueprints" was to blame for the nation's deficit.

"If President Obama is assigning blame for the country's debt and deficits, he should look no further than his own budget blueprints," said Andrea Saul, spokesperson for the Romney campaign. "After piling on trillions of dollars in new debt in his first three years in office, the last thing President Obama is qualified to lecture on is responsible federal spending."

[occupy_cbs]

stevehamilton858: "I agree that it took too long for the president to realize he wasn't going to get anywhere with the Republicans by being nice/cooperative. He should have realized that the GOP has been taken over by extremists, and that extremists never negotiate in good faith, because they never want to give anything up - which is the basic operative rule in negotiation - every party has to give something up, no-one gets everything he wants."

"He's finally getting into their faces, and that approach is going to unearth all of the fallacies and lies that organizations like the Tea Party or Norquist's ATR have been feeding to elected or prospective GOP officials."





Yes steve, it appears that President Obama indeed took too long being nice to the extremist republicans that think COMPROMISE is a 4-letter word, and keep spewing their GOP mantra of "my way, or the highway".

It is time to unearth all those fox/rush LIES and DECEPTIONS by ALEC, the koch heads and karl rove's GPS PAC, just to mention a few, and show the American people there are 2 clear visions of America today -- one by the far-right extremist republicans and one by a far more moderate President Obama, trying to save what is left of the evaporating middle class!

[occupy_cbs]

stormerF69: "But the Democrats were as complacent in the Iraq war as the Republicans were. Even you can look up who voted for it"



Sorry, but a WAR decided with FEARmongering by the busheviks and fantasy WMD was a huge farce, and even an outed CIA agent didn't help the republican cause.

In the GOP House, it was 215 to 6 with republicans FOR WAR, and 126 to 82 with Democrats AGAINST the WAR.

In the GOP Senate, it was 48 to 1 with republicans wanting WAR, and almost evenly divided with Democrats -- 29 to 21 for WAR.

So while there was a huge consensus of 263 to 7 republican congresscritters voting FOR WAR, there was a consensus of 147 to 111 Democrats voting AGAINST the GOP manufactured WAR in Iraq!

Stick with the facts, and keep looking for those fantasy WMD for dirty dickie and the rest of the fascist bushevik republiCONS!

[occupy_cbs]

RIP-GOP: "Yep, the debates should be very interesting. I expect the President to trap Romney into arguing both sides of an issue."




Or at least for willard ROBme to make the President a $10,000 bet!

[occupy_cbs]

"The President singled out GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney over his support for Paul Ryan's controversial 2013 Republican budget plan......That plan, Mr. Obama argued, is 'so far to the right' that it makes Newt Gingrich's 1990s-era Contract with America 'look like the New Deal.'"




Yeah, imagine that......'lyin' ryan's' path to prosperity for millionaires, which is even more radical than their usual "supply side economic insanity," which cuts everything for the poor and middle classes in order to pay for even more tax cuts for millionaires!

[sjc_1]

Since Reagan it has been nothing but a supply side con job and people fell for it. They say every con requires a greedy mark, in this case people wanted to be rich so they gave the GOP their evil ways.

[stormerF69]

Obama says not another round of tax cuts, was he not the one who signed the last tax cuts for the rich,and everyone else? He keeps attacking the Ryan Paln but the Democrats have yet to put out a budget in more than a 1000 days? Hypocritic, narcissistic a$$ he is.

[parrots7]

yea, it's all the Presidents fault. Dumb Dumb repugs !!

[TimeToEvolve]

Well duh, these Republicons have gone completely off the deep end. They want to radically alter America and its Constitution to have it all serve Wall Street and the Top 1%. It is clear they hate almost all Americans except the rich white men and will stop at nothing to implement their radical anti-government, anti-worker agenda.

[stormerF69]

You do know of what you say? Or are you back on Obama koolaid again? Radical please where is the Democratic budget due over 1000 days ago? Why does the Democratic run Senate refuse to put forth a budget? Maybe they like uncontrolled spending?

[Lionhart40]

I seriously doubt that either budget is any good. It's too concerned with what side of the isle your on, instead of relying on a nuetural body of economists with no ties to any politician. Also, because of politics nobody will make it into law that all those things we import from companies abroad should be manufactured under OSHA and our environmental regs. We need an even playing field for this "world economy to keep jobs here.

[stevehamilton858]

One of the best ways to repatriate jobs and prevent future jobs from going offshore would be to make a simple change to the IRS code that would not allow companies to reduce their taxable income with 100% of their foreign costs, maybe only 75%, or so. If this were coupled with a carrot in the form of tax credits for each net new hire in America, we would see a lot of foreign jobs return to the US, and a dramatic slow down in the exporting of new hires. Your ideas, while noble, are impractical.

With respect to your idea about how the budget should be developed, I'm pretty sure that what you suggest is unconstitutional. Economists can make suggestions, but only elected Congresspersons
can pass legislation. They can't subcontract the job.

[TimeToEvolve]

I see that at least the Democrats want to conserve what America was and help the masses of people. The Republicons seem to want to help only themselves by enriching Wall Street, their Top 1% corporate masters.

[BWB2020]

"TaxJoke April 3, 2012 8:15 PM EDT
please stop posting lies! prove what you stated about Santorum, back it up with proof - that is hateful!"

Dude, it is all over the net, go to youtube, and search "Santorum calls Obama a nig" The video is there for all to see and hear.

There are hundreds of sites with this video, if you haven't seen it by now, it is because you don't want to see it.

Of course, you baggers will claim that you don't hear it, even though it is as clear as a bell.

I quote, "We all know Obama, the anti war, government nig... uhh,fff America was the source of ..."

[BWB2020]

Well, I backed it up, I am sure you saw it by now...

Hello, hello...

Hmm, where'd he go?

[RobAla]

Radical vision by Republicans?????? How about President Obama's radical vision???!!!!!????

1) He lied 8 times in promises to televise the health care discussions openly on CSPAN.
2) He made deals giving one premium health care plan to union members (supporters) and another to the rest of the country.
3) He stood by and allowed the House and Senate to buy health care votes using taxpayer money.
4) He allowed the health care bills to be fashioned behind closed doors and be filled with political favors. This disaster of a health care law increases the cost of health care by imposing fees on medical devices (like pacemakers). He and they took over the nations health care by the federal government - most Americans did not want this extreme action - and still do not. This horrible law will cause the majority of Americans to have higher health care cost in rising premiums. We already can not afford the size federal government that we currently have, with a $16 trillion national debt. It imposes $billions of unfunded mandates on struggling states to provide greater Medicaid coverage. 27 states are suing the federal government over this nonsense, as they don't have the money to pay for this. Businesses are not hiring because of the additional cost PER EMPLOYEE that is caused by this law.
5) President Obama has continued at least a 8% unemployment rate for three years.
6) He irresponsibly overspent 100s of billions of dollars the US didn't have on bailouts (President Bush started it and President Obama accelerated it) and bogus stimulus packages. Progressives in Congress have refused to do their jobs to allow a national budget be established since 2009.
7) President Obama has behaved in the most partisan manner of any recent President, after promising bipartisanship. He has arrogantly trashed everyone who has not agreed with his socialist agenda - even the Supreme Court.
8) Instead of securing the border and enforcing federal immigration laws, the President has made war on Arizona Americans as they attempt to protect themselves from an invasion of illegal immigrants.
9) The President's man, AG Holder, dropped his case against the Black Panthers who blatantly intimidated voters at the polls. Holder is suing Texas for requiring photo IDs of voters. Texas is providing FREE photo IDs to registered voters who don't have a photo ID, but Holder doesn't care. Holder may finally be kicked out over "Fast and Furious" - the program that sold guns to Mexican cartels, guns used to kill a US border agent.
10) This President has focused on an extremist agenda of "fundamentally transforming" the US from a democratic republic into a socialist democracy, instead of the millions without jobs. We are all witnessing the collapse of European socialist democracies, yet this does nothing to stop this President from pushing us down that road to disaster.
11) President Obama imposed a moratorium on drilling in the gulf, throwing thousands more out of work. One foreign oil company screwed up, and the President decided to punish other oil companies that have drilled responsibly for decades.
12) President Obama wanted the President Bush tax cuts to expire, which would have resulted in redirecting money away from the economy and pushing it into Washington. The President held on to this until he was forced to change by the pounding the Democrats took in the 2010 election. Still, he promises to increase taxes next year.
13) The President and other progressives in Congress have imposed oppressive additional expenses and regulations on private sector businesses that are crippling the private sector jobs market, while expanding the federal government and public sector jobs. Anyone with any economic sense knows that you need tax revenues from a healthy private sector jobs market to fund public sector expansions, and the money is just not there.
14) With gas prices rising and projected to hit record levels by summer 2012, President Obama stops the Canadian pipeline deal that would reduce the US dependence on middle- eastern oil. His entire energy policy is idiotic, and leaves the US damaged. His impractical policies have included pumping public funds into "green energy" companies that have gone bankrupt, and even GM recently announced it will discontinue the manufacturing of the Volt electric car - they are unable to sell them.
15) In President Obama's 2012 budget, he never addressed serious issues threatening the future of the nation (like the fact that if Medicare and Social Security are not restructured, they both are projected to collapse by 2037). In fact, in the face of a staggering $16 trillion national debt - he proposed that we add another $trillion to it.

Just to name a few. The perfect word for President Obama is "irresponsible".

[retm-w]

The perfect word for rob, is cut and paste and hatred.

[thelovegod]

Radical people cut and paste.

[BWB2020]

The only negative about Mr. Obama's speech is the timing.

Had he been this adamant from day one of his term, we would have had a public health option, we could have pulled out of Afghanistan and Iraq much sooner, and the economy could have been well down the road to a true recovery.

But it was his constant attempts at appeasement to those who now call him nig.., )as Santorum did), those who will never be able to accept a "black" president, that has delayed any real action to repair the US economy.

Mr. Obama finally admits that which we all knew 20 years ago, that trickle down economics will never work.

Without getting my hopes up, at least he is now saying that which we needed to hear when he first assumed office. We shall see what he actually does about it.

I am not optimistic.

[retm-w]

Taxjoke talk about hateful, that's what you post all the time.

[stevehamilton858]

I agree that it took too long for the president to realize he wasn't going to get anywhere with the Republicans by being nice/cooperative. He should have realized that the GOP has been taken over by extremists, and that extremists never negotiate in good faith, because they never want to give anything up - which is the basic operative rule in negotiation - every party has to give something up, no-one gets everything he wants.

He's finally getting into their faces, and that approach is going to unearth all of the fallacies and lies that organizations like the Tea Party or Norquist's ATR have been feeding to elected or prospective GOP officials. Whoever wins the circus to choose a GOP candidate will be listed in the Guinness Book of Records in November as the first GOP candidate to ever lose by a larger margin than Barry Goldwater did in 1964. The RNC will force the wingnuts out of the party or become a rump party in 2013.