Some have suggested that the speech President Obama gave at George Washington University on Wednesday was more of the sort that many expected last week when he announced that he would run for re-election next year. Obama devoted much of the first part of the speech to a history lesson, recalling for us the federal debt accumulation of the 1980s and how our leaders came together three times in the 1990s to reduce that debt, and then how we have come to where we are now, predicting that by the end of this decade, the interest we owe on our debt could rise to nearly one trillion dollars, and how that burden will fundamentally change our way of life. He also repeatedly invoked our nation's vision, the promises weâve made to seniors, poor children and disabled people. He says that is not the vision embraced in the plan put forth by Representative Paul Ryan to cut the deficit by 4 trillion over a decade and change how Medicaid and Medicare operate. What did you think of the President's speech?
Guests:
- Joan McLean (Politics and Government Professor at Ohio Wesleyan University)
- Paul Djupe (Associate Professor of Political Science at Denison University)
Watch the speech (courtesy of PBS Newshour): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFp9daOriFU