He Said It

Pretty good speech from the President today, framing the choice very clearly. Romney offers more George W. Bush: more tax cuts, more military spending, cuts to everything else but still ever-ballooning deficits, plus more wars, more pollution, and more crazy risk on Wall Street. Obama offers what amounts to more Bill Clinton: modest tax increases, military cuts, more spending on research, infrastructure, and education, plus immigration reform. The contrast is quite clear:

Governor Romney disagrees with my vision. His allies in Congress disagree with my vision. Neither of them will endorse any policy that asks the wealthiest Americans to pay even a nickel more in taxes.

It’s the reason why we haven’t reached a grand bargain to bring down our deficit; not with my plan, not with the Bowles-Simpson plan, not with the so-called Gang of Six plan. Despite the fact that taxes are lower than they’ve been in decades, they won’t work with us on any plan that would increase taxes on our wealthiest Americans. It’s the reason a jobs bill that would put 1 million people back to work has been voted down time and time again. It’s the biggest source of gridlock in Washington today.

And the only thing that can break the stalemate is you.

We can only hope. Alas, it seems highly unlikely that either party will end up controlling the White House and both houses of Congress. So I fear the gridlock will continue. But better gridlock than a Romney-Ryan government of religious Ayn Randians.