OPINION:
Expect President Obama to use his primetime State of the Union address Tuesday to blame the GOP for all the nation’s ills in the hopes of convincing voters to oust them in 2014. He knows the most extreme of the liberal items on his agenda can’t get through the legislative process unless Rep. Nancy Pelosi retakes the speaker’s gavel.
Mrs. Pelosi began carrying the president’s water in 2009 and hasn’t wavered since. On this weekend’s “Fox News Sunday,” the California Democrat actually said, “It is almost a false argument to say we have a spending problem.”
When host Chris Wallace asked about the $5.8 trillion debt increase during Mr. Obama’s first term, she responded it was caused partly because of the “recession, depression,” but added, “It isn’t as much a spending problem as priorities, and that is what the budget is, setting priorities.”
Instead of an $85 billion sequestration that reduces spending, Mr. Obama wants higher taxes in the name of “fairness.” As Mr. Wallace noted, the top 5 percent already pay 59 percent of all federal taxes. Unbowed, Mrs. Pelosi insisted on resurrecting the so-called Buffett Rule and a hike in investment taxes to 30 percent, even though the tax for those who make over $400,000 rose from 15 to 23.8 percent just last month.
She also said we must end the subsidy to “big oil” because it “gives us a lot of money.” In fact, it amounts to about $2.5 billion a year, enough to cover two hours of government spending, and the increased expense would just be passed along to consumers at the gas pump.
According to Mrs. Pelosi, leaving more money in the hands of the private sector will actually slow the economy. “If you have spending cuts, education of our children, other investments, on the National Institutes of Health, where you are hindering growth, you’re not going to reduce the deficit.” She also said that, “Nothing brings more money to the Treasury of the United States, than investment in education of the American people.”
The House Democratic leader announced on Thursday a dozen ways Congress could restrict gun owners’ rights. The proposals from her “Gun Violence Prevention Task Force” included a ban on magazines over 10 rounds, a prohibition on semi-automatic guns with scary cosmetic features and a big taxpayer subsidy for “gun buyback” programs and other gun control promotions.
These are the sort of measures that could become law if the House were to fall into Democratic hands after the 2014 elections. Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Obama can’t ram those items through the process with a GOP majority that stands in the way of the most extreme plans to gut the Second Amendment guarantee to keep and bear arms.
Mr. Obama’s big speech Tuesday will be a laundry list of liberal dreams he hopes to enact in his second term. With luck, voters will be listening closely and realize the importance of having the House serve as a check against the White House designs. Mrs. Pelosi needs to stay away from the speaker’s chair.
Emily Miller is a senior editor for the Opinion pages at The Washington Times.
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