Well, He Did It

There is little I enjoy more than seeing President Obama pissed off. His poise and equanimity, even when being shouted down on the floor of Congress during the State of the Union, can be maddening at times. It was thus highly gratifying to see that flash of anger in Obama’s eyes yesterday afternoon when he refused to accept Rep. Paul Ryan’s far-right, radical remaking of a less generous, less compassionate, less sound America. (You can watch the speech here. He gets fired up—for him, at least, starting around minute 22.)

Most importantly, Obama finally made the moral case for government, and for the social safety net that must be protected. He described these programs as “commitments” to our fellow-citizens, commitments that are essential parts of his—and our—“vision for America that we want to see five years, 10 years, 20 years down the road.” And he tied that radical shift to the moral bankruptcy of insisting on greater tax cuts for the wealthy:

[T]his is a vision that says even though Americans can't afford to invest in education at current levels, or clean energy, even though we can't afford to maintain our commitment on Medicare and Medicaid, we can somehow afford more than $1 trillion in new tax breaks for the wealthy. Think about that. […]

They want to give people like me a $200,000 tax cut that's paid for by asking 33 seniors each to pay $6,000 more in health costs. That's not right. And it's not going to happen as long as I'm President.

This vision is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America. … There's nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. And I don't think there's anything courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don't have any clout on Capitol Hill. That's not a vision of the America I know.

The America I know is generous and compassionate. It's a land of opportunity and optimism. Yes, we take responsibility for ourselves, but we also take responsibility for each other; for the country we want and the future that we share.

Obama made a direct moral case for the preservation of our nation’s commitments to the poor, the sick, the elderly, recalling my favorite line from his 2004 speech that I mentioned yesterday:

But let me be absolutely clear: I will preserve these health care programs as a promise we make to each other in this society. I will not allow Medicare to become a voucher program that leaves seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry, with a shrinking benefit to pay for rising costs. I will not tell families with children who have disabilities that they have to fend for themselves. We will reform these programs, but we will not abandon the fundamental commitment this country has kept for generations.

This is the argument we have been waiting for. Obama included his usual homage to coming together as a nation, Republicans and Democrats bridging the divide, etc etc. But before that, he shredded Ryan’s plan not for its fishy numbers, its fake accounting, or its massive hypocrisy, but for its radical cruelty. “It’s not right,” he said of Ryan’s plan. Sticking with our promises is. Thank you, Mr. President, for finally saying so.