Obama's budget is not selling at this point

Micheal Goodwin:

Now you know why President Obama went on Jay Leno. It's a lot more fun for him, and a lot easier to get applause, when people are laughing and having fun.

There were no yuks Tuesday night, and by my count, his first big smile came 46 minutes into a very sober press conference. It's no coincidence that he also suffered a setback to his aim of selling the public on the idea that the economy depends on his budget being passed intact.

"The budget is inseparable from this recovery," he said, putting his chips on a radical spending, borrowing and tax plan.

It's a bad bet, one he won't win - and shouldn't win.

Peppered with questions about the trillion-dollar deficits his proposal creates and the chorus of opposition from Democrats and Republicans, not to mention concern in Europe and China, Obama had no persuasive answers. His silver tongue seemed tied in knots when he was asked why, despite his promises to cutthe deficit, projections have itrising dramatically - trillionsbeyond what his own office estimates.

The true answer is that Obama wants to spend far more than the nation can afford, even with his huge tax hikes. And the more his plans become clear, the less convincing is his claim that they are all tied to the economic crisis.

His cap-and-trade carbon proposal, for example, would impose huge costs on businesses, which would in turn pass them on to customers. That's why critics say a more honest name for the plan is "cap and tax."

Obama did concede the growing tide of red ink had to be addressed, which he promised to do by repeating his mantra about "going line by line" to cut wasteful spending. He also trotted out the tired chestnut about "working on a bipartisan basis."

The problem with both those claims is that, so far, Obama hasn't done either....

...

He had a giggly performance on 60 Minutes and a boring performance at his press conference last night and in neither did he mount a persuasive case for the kind of spending he and Nancy Pelosi have in mind. That is because what they want to do is pretty indefensible. Perhaps some of the Senate Democrats can save him from himself and cut the spending request back. Right now he is not selling his program to American votes or to Chinese debt holders.