President Barack Obama came precariously close to having a “bring ‘em on” moment Saturday.
Back in 2003, when U.S. forces were struggling to establish order in Iraq, President George W. Bush 
was roundly pilloried when he taunted militants plotting attacks on American troops to “bring ‘em on.”
Obama, trying to push his first budget through Congress, is not feuding with Iraqi militants — he’s got his own axis of evil.
They are the powerful lobbyists and wealthy special interests who drive up healthcare costs, sponge off federal education loan money and soak up other government subsidies and tax breaks.
Obama says they are spoiling for a showdown over his plan to squeeze their funding out of his $3.55 trillion budget.
“I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak,” Obama said in his radio address.
“My message to them is this: So am I.”
2/28/09: Your Weekly Address from White House on Vimeo.
For more Reuters political news, please click here.
Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Obama speaks to Marines at Camp Lejeune Friday)
Trackback
8 comments so far
Ah, yeah, because saying you’re going to “fight” lobbyists is just like challenging militants to attack and kill American troops. Moron.
- Posted by TylerMoron, huh?
- Posted by LukeYou must be a bush league supporter… one of those few people who still support those responsible for driving our country into the ground, exposed our CIA agents and support the worst president in American history… one of those who hope our president will fail. You want to put our country in an even worse position than it is now. People like you are responsible for damaging our country. You and all like you are, in fact, anti-American.
We will also fight this irresponsible government. We will organize a movement to refuse to pay federal taxes in defiance of your mismanagement of peoples tax money. When millions of people agree to this, it will be impossible to send us all to jail. We may even sue you for graft and corruption. We will be like your cabinet members who avoided paying taxes. You can pay your bloated government and porky bills by yourself. You seem not to care about the result of your actions because you know you will be a one term president. Your plans are based on hope that we will recover quickly economically while destroying the people who are creating jobs and creating new taxes behind the energy bill. Hope is never a good strategy. The people need and deserved better plans and not wanton spendings like you proposed in the current difficult time we are facing. As we all know higher and new taxes will be the result of all these irresponsible plans. We refuse follow a misguided government blindly to oblivion.
- Posted by Danyes luke there are still lots of us around just sitting on the fence waiting till you to guys screw up again,with your socialism,and free hand outs.capitalism will once again rule.
- Posted by brian leeI think personally Obama is trying his best to get America back on track. It will involve a lot of work. Obama tells us this in all his speeches.I think the word is time we have to wait and see if all of this will happen. I think it will. Why don’t we give Obama credit where it is due
- Posted by Mary Karnescorrection mary,”why don,t we give obama credit WHEN it is due”.
- Posted by brian leeLuke, based on your comment “…bush league supporter…exposed our CIA agents…” I recommend you check out factcheck.org, search “Plame” and do some reading before you swipe at such topics. The person who publicly announced Valerie Wilson’s connection to the CIA was her husband Joseph Wilson. And in the article where he did so, along with opining that the Bush administration was lying, he conveniently left out that he actually had learned there was a possibility that Iraq had sought Uranium from Niger. The following quote comes from fact check.org:
July 6, 2003 – Wilson publishes ” What I didn’t find in Africa” in The New York Times, identifying himself for the first time as the unnamed “envoy.” He writes, “I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq ’s nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.” Wilson does not mention that he learned there was a possibility Iraq had sought uranium during a 1999 trade meeting with Niger ’s former Prime Minister.
I recommend you keep reading up on more sources for what actually happened than you apparently have been reading so far. Why did the CIA ask Wilson to go? Because his wife proposed his name. That’s called nepotism. And it’s relevant in evaluating the course of events.
- Posted by Jeffhi eric h i hope the last posting puts this issue to rest, unless you still have your head buried in the snow? up in maine your too nice a guy to give any credence to plame/wilson.
- Posted by brian lee