To Boldly Go Where No Party Has Gone Before...

FEB 7, 2011, VOL. 16, NO. 20 • BY MATTHEW CONTINETTI

After watching the State of the Union address, we’ve finally figured out which position President Obama could play for the Steelers on Super Bowl Sunday. He’d make a great punter.

Michael Ramirez

Decades of overspending and overpromising by the federal government, combined with a plunge in tax revenues, are pushing America to the brink of fiscal crisis. Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, and interest on the national debt are gobbling up the gross domestic product. The aging Baby Boomers, meanwhile, are waiting in the wings.

President Obama knows the nature and extent of the crisis. His own debt commission reported in December, “If the U.S. does not put its house in order, the reckoning will be sure and the devastation severe.” And the debt commission offered plenty of intriguing ways to address the problem. Its plans to overhaul the tax code and Social Security were especially bold. Commissioners Paul Ryan and Alice Rivlin, moreover, delivered their own proposal to turn Medicare into a sustainable defined-contribution system. And a separate presidential commission, led by Paul -Volcker, outlined a corporate tax reform that would lower rates while closing loopholes.

Obama could have adopted any of these policies as his own. He could have used the State of the Union to challenge Republicans to work with him on bringing the government’s finances into balance while encouraging economic growth. He could have seized the deficit-hawk middle ground and possibly split the GOP in the process. Instead, he punted. He left it up to Republicans to take the ball and run.