A few days ago, Barack Obama attempted to diagnose the reason for the standoff over the debt limit and deficit spending. CBS News quoted him as blaming the American political system:
The president warned that if an agreement isn’t reached, the U.S. could lose its triple-A credit rating. “Not because we didn’t have the capacity to pay our bills — we do,” he said. “But because we didn’t have a triple-A political system to match our triple-A credit rating.”
Actually, the standoff shows that our political system seems to be improving. Representative government works best when elected officials listen to their constituents — and clearly, Congress heard enough from voters in the last midterm election to understand that we see spending as the problem, not undertaxation. Congress finally resolved the standoff by shifting focus to spending reductions, perhaps for the first time in decades, although we’ll see just how committed they will be to following through on that approach.
By the way … isn’t that the same political system that made Obama President? Maybe Obama realizes he’s not AAA caliber, either. In fact, I’m not sure he’s farm club caliber.
Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.
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