Orszag: He’s a Little Bit Country
EmailAs we pointed out earlier this morning, OMB director Peter Orszag quoted Toby Keith in his testimony before the House Budget Committee yesterday, saying "there ain’t no right way to do the wrong thing."
The Princeton numbers-cruncher is a huge country fan and when he goes for runs that’s what’s in his iPod. ABC News’ George Sanchez reports that in today’s testimony before the House Ways & Means Committee, Orszag quoted another country singer, Montgomery Gentry: "This ain’t about easy — it’s about tough."
As in:
This ain’t about easy it’s about tough
It’s about leaving the house before the sun comes up
The kickin, the cussin, the fussin, the fightin
Stayin in love when the money gets tight
When you start in this world with a wide-eyed girl
And a twenty dollar pawn shop ring
I know one thing it ain’t about easy — jpt UPDATE: If you’re looking for more substance about Mr. Orszag’s testimony, and the economic debate, please click HERE.
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Tell that to Brown. He gets a standing ovation and the American taxpayer gets a dumb ear. For what? Lauding the threat of protectionism. Isn’t it Europe that’s excluding eastern countries from bailout provisions?
Posted by: Mark | March 4, 2009, 3:14 pm 3:14 pm
Heh.
Quoting country music lyrics in Congressional testimony seems a good way to try to get the very loyal country music fans (often conservative) to feel an affinity for him. And his enormous budget.
Posted by: MayBee | March 4, 2009, 3:20 pm 3:20 pm
Ya know, it’d be helpful if you’d say if he’s married or not so I know how far-fetched my crush is,lol.
Thanks for the post, through.
Posted by: Rhoda | March 4, 2009, 3:26 pm 3:26 pm
Good job, Jake Tapper. You noted none of the substance of what Mr. Orszag had to say, because apparently the only thing important about his discussion with lawmakers was his quoting of some country music lyrics.
I can tell ya, there’s no wonder from me way out here in the Pacific, regarding the reasons why American political journalism is going down the tubes like a greased pig.
Posted by: Donald from Hawaii | March 4, 2009, 3:43 pm 3:43 pm
Rhodo, Orszag is divorced and lives in DC with his two kids. Check out his bio on Wikipedia.
He’s extremely bright and attractive to gov’t geeks. I feel safer just knowing he’s in charge of our budget.
Posted by: Pat | March 4, 2009, 3:44 pm 3:44 pm
Hmmmm! And Orszag said he’s a little bit country???? It doesn’t make sense.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 4, 2009, 4:32 pm 4:32 pm
Orszag is not helping with change or transparancy in the budget process. Yesterday Orszag referred to the surge not happening again for each of the next ten years as $1,600,000,000,000 in savings. He said this was normal procedure.
This is like claiming anyone who paid for a funeral last year will experience great savings over the next ten years because they aren’t paying for that funeral again.
We need change and transparency in the way DC budgets are done.
This a bipartisan problem.
Posted by: mad | March 4, 2009, 5:00 pm 5:00 pm
Orszag is the youngest and brightest star of the new administration!
Rock on, Mr. Director!
Posted by: Orszag Groopies | March 4, 2009, 5:07 pm 5:07 pm
What an unattractive man. His voice is too high. Creeps me out. So does Geithner. So does Rham Emanuel. What a weird cast of characters the Obama team consists of. They are not inspriring confidence. Hillary is the ONLY bright spot in this administration.
Posted by: O | March 4, 2009, 5:23 pm 5:23 pm
@ mad (5:00:17)
Great catch of the $1.6 trillion in “savings” – this has gotten by (and will get by) the vastly (and sadly) uniformed American electorate. “He said this was normal procedure.” Change we can believe in…
On another note, the lyrics courtesy of Mr. Gentry are of far more substance than anything I’ve heard Mr. Orszag utter…
Posted by: tjp612 | March 4, 2009, 7:55 pm 7:55 pm
Not exactly instilling confidence with this…
Posted by: matt | March 4, 2009, 8:21 pm 8:21 pm
“The new administration has inherited an economic crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetimes,” he said. “If we don’t adopt the policies that are in this budget, the budget deficit over the next decade will be $2 trillion higher and we will not have addressed problems in our energy market, in our educational system and in our health care system.
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Jake, the article lacked substance about the budget other than the same old story: “We inherited a catastrophe and a huge defecit and we need to spend as much as we want, in the way that we want, to avert an even worse situation.”
Posted by: mad | March 4, 2009, 9:47 pm 9:47 pm
orszag has groopies? Are you a voter?
Posted by: Della Creighton | March 4, 2009, 11:40 pm 11:40 pm
well if the new deal is any thing like the one we are getting. We will really be singing a country crying in our beer song . Im already crying in mine. And the Idea of being like eu really freaks me out.
Posted by: Della Creighton | March 4, 2009, 11:46 pm 11:46 pm