Obama Challenges Lobbyists to a Duel

Filed in National by on February 28, 2009

He gets it, he really gets it.

In today’s radio address, Pres. Obama has made it crystal clear that he will take on the lobbyists in the health care industry, the financial industry, and the oil industry to enact genuine reform.

“The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long,” Mr. Obama said in his weekly radio and video address. “But I don’t. I work for the American people.” 

He said his ambitious budget plan, unveiled Thursday, will help millions of Americans, but only if Congress overcomes resistance from deep-pocket lobbies. 

“I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight,” Mr. Obama said, using tough-guy language reminiscent of his predecessor, George W. Bush. “My message to them is this: So am I.” 

If that isn’t change we can believe in, El Somnambulo doesn’t know what is.

It is precisely the kind of gauntlet that Jack Markell will have to lay down to enact real reform in Delaware. Only by driving a stake through the heart of the corrupt and rotting Delaware Way will Delaware ever realize its potential.  Fortunately, Jack has a role model in the White House.

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  1. pandora says:

    Obama is the lobbyist for the American people, and it’s about time we have one.

  2. anonone says:

    It is stuff like this that keeps me bouncing between the walls of despair and hope.

  3. anon says:

    but only if Congress overcomes resistance from deep-pocket lobbies.

    Did he mention Tom Carper by name?

  4. While he did not mention your favorite Senator by name, he did mention the financial and lending institutions, which, it could be argued, is the same thing.

  5. Susan Regis Collins says:

    This makes my heart sing…………

  6. Unstable Isotope says:

    This is great news! I’m glad Obama is taking them on. Corporate lobbyists, and in particular lobbyists for banking interests and health insurance companies are at their lowest popularity while Obama is at his highest. These reforms can’t wait. We’re now seeing the Obama we’ve hoped to see, the change agent. His agenda is very ambitious and he’s not holding back much at all.

    In another sense, though, it pisses me off that he has to take these guys on at all. I wish we had a government that worked.

    I hope Markell is watching Obama, and from what I’ve seen Markell is doing a good job so far.

  7. h. says:

    Yes. I am glad he kept his promise of no lobbyists on his White House team. Makes me feel better.

  8. jason330 says:

    I love it. Republicans and lobbyists on one side, Obama and the people on the other.

    49 state victory four years from now.

  9. jason330 says:

    El Somnambulo (#4)

    Ha! You got that right.

  10. Well, except for the lobbyists he has brought into his administration in violation of his own prohibition on lobbyists in his administration.

  11. Nice radio speech but like most things Obama does he reads to us and doesn’t talk to us.

    The Health Care Plan he envisions will fall amamzingly short of the desired result and cost a whole lot more.

    The insurance industry can’t be defended and I am sure he will use them as the demon in the debate. Dems always have to have a demon. Still, Obama’s plan is terrible. If you want substance speak up there are at least 10 major things wrong with his plan.

    We need universal care but not this way.

    http://www.delawarerepublicanwordpress.com

  12. xstryker says:

    Dems always have to have a demon.

    Hilarious irony here from the party that invented the word “islamofacism” and constantly fear mongers about gays, communists, and “welfare queens”.