You have to wonder

What is going on? It is a question that I keep asking myself each time I consider the latest speech or "plan" coming from president Obama. Think about what has happened just since last November when the voters opted for the GOP in a major shift.

1) First, last December Obama came out in support of extending the Bush tax rates for another two years until the end of 2012. Obama announced that this extension had to happen because to do otherwise would hurt the fragile economic recovery then underway. Since then, economic growth has slowed and unemployment has risen. Now, Obama wants to end the very same tax rates by increasing the amounts paid by the top end. If tax increases of that sort were unacceptable when the recovery looked like it was still in place, how can those tax increases become acceptable when the economy has deteriorated?

2) Last February, Obama proposed a budget that would not cut spending at all. Instead, Obama actually wanted to increase spending and have a larger deficit. The Republicans came forth with their own budget which passed the House; it called for savings of over six trillion dollars in the next ten years. After the senate rejected Obama's proposal in a vote of 97 to 0, he decided that he was going to be a deficit hawk. Of course, it is more accurate to say that Obama announced that he was going to be a deficit hawk but did nothing about that. When the 2011 spending bill had to be finalized, Obama fought for higher spending but finally agreed to with the GOP on a reduction that would save about 40 billion dollars in the next few years. When the debt ceiling debate came along, Obama refused to come up with a plan but kept talking and talking and delayiing any final result. Obama spoke often about the need for tax increases even after he agreed that there would be none. Finally, a deal was reached. The debt ceiling was raised, 1.2 trillion dollars in cuts were set and the super committee was created and charged with the difficult task of finding another 1.5 trillion dollars in savings. Obama spoke at leangth about how difficult the negotiations had been and about what a good result had been achieved.

Within days of the debt ceiling deal being finalized, Obama began to try to undercut it. He announced that there was a crisis of joblessness that had to be dealt with immediately after his two week vacation to Martha's Vineyard. Now, six weeks later we finally get Obama's "jobs plan" and his deficit reduction plan. Both are basically plans for a long term tax increase with some one year reductions in other taxes and a big bump in spending of the sort that is least likely to lead to long term job growth.

How can it be that after giving up on revenue increases in the negotiations for the supercommittee, Obama is back pushing for the same things now. The Democrats in the senate already rejected these ideas in July. How can Obama think that he has any likelihood of getting these proposals passed now?

3) And when Obama proposed his deficit cutting plan, his numbers were off by close to 4 trillion dollars. How can the White House be that sloppy? Is it possible that Obama and his staff are really unaware of the current tax law? Do they really put out plans intended to govern the future of the USA without checking them for accuracy. After all, a 4 trillion dollar mistake is not the result of someone making a computational mistake. Even for Obama, 4 trillion dollars is real money.

4) In the discussions last Summer, Obama said that there would need to be major changes to entitlements if the deficit probem was to be overcome. Now, there are no changes to Social Security and almost none to Medicare. How can it be that the central issue with regard to the deficit is no longer of importance to Obama?

What in the world is going on here? Even if this is just campaign rhetoric from Obama, it makes no sense. Why would Obama put forward plans that cannot succeed? Why would he put forward plans that contradict so many of his positions that he forcefully took just a month or so ago? Why would he put forward plans that are so flawed that they make him look stupid? Indeed, why would Obama put forward plans that the Democrats in the Senate have already rejected?

Maybe there is some brilliant master plan at work here. Somehow, thought, I doubt that. I think that dealing with the economy has suddenly gotten totally beyond Obama's abilities. What we are seeing is flailing and nothing more. Unfortunately, when the president of the USA is flailing about the economy, the rest of us suffer, big time!