Three big questions for the president heading into State of the Union

Below are three big questions the president needs to answer in his State of the Union address. They all relate to long-term deficits. One of the questions addresses an actual way to fix the deficit. The other two are mere distractions.

1. Why is the spending freeze necessary?

President Barack Obama needs to explain why the spending freeze isn’t a gimmick to make it appear like he’s a budget hawk. Advocates of Obama’s agenda rightly believe a spending freeze is exactly the type of political gimmick the president would normally denounce. The White House is saying this isn’t an across-the-board freeze (meaning not every program will see a freeze). The president needs to provide concrete examples of programs worthy of a reduction and those worthy of an increase. He also needs to say why military procurement wasn’t included in the spending freeze. Also, why aren’t revenue measures included along with a spending freeze?

2. Why should Congress support a gimmick like Conrad-Gregg?

At the last moment, in a surprise to many, President Obama came out in favor of the Conrad-Gregg deficit commission. The Conrad-Gregg commission was defeated in the United States Senate on Monday, but the president is poised to form a compromise panel by executive order.

If the president enjoyed trying to get a filibuster-proof majority to pass healthcare, he’s going to love trying to get 14 of 18 members to agree to single unified compromise on everything in the United States budget. Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, ran away from this idea quicker than McConnell’s home-state University of Kentucky star freshman John Wall.

3. Shouldn’t the focus be on getting comprehensive healthcare moving again?

If deficits are a serious long-term concern to the United States, then the president should ignore the first two fixes and get healthcare reform moving again. Rising healthcare spending is the principal cause of future budget shortfalls. Beyond the fiscal health of the United States Treasury, there are still millions of uninsured, underinsured, and fearful of becoming uninsured. Plenty of pundits believe that Congress and the president need to run away from healthcare if they have any hope of reelection. Voters aren’t going to develop amnesia and forget that Democrats spent a year on healthcare. Instead, why not deliver a substantive benefit to voters and prove your ability to deliver on a promise? Even if the electoral advice were correct, Democrats should ask themselves, “What is more important: reelection or fixing healthcare?”

The views expressed in this blog do not represent the views or opinions of Generations United.