Obama: I Work for Americans, Not Lobbyists
Gloves off, game on, Obama tells powerful lobbies, as budget battle starts.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2009— -- President Obama aimed a sweeping broadside at critics of his $3.5 trillion budget today, portraying them as allies of lobbyists and special interests more concerned with preserving corporate tax breaks than reviving the economy.
"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 as we speak," Obama said in a fiery weekly address released today. "My message to them is this: So am I."
The president pitted himself against some of the nation's most unpopular industries, and he named names: bankers, insurers and energy companies.
"I know that the insurance industry won't like the idea that they'll have to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage," Obama said. "I know that banks and big student lenders won't like the idea that we're ending their huge taxpayer subsidies. ... I know that oil and gas companies won't like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks."
He dismissed what some industrial lobbyists complained were legitimate criticisms of the Obama budget.
"The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long, but I don't," Obama said. "I work for the American people."
Political analysts say it was no surprise he chose those industries.
"If you want to demonize the industries that might oppose your proposals, you might want to pick the ones that are most unpopular. That's what he did," University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato told ABC News. "In politics, you can accomplish more by flogging evil figures than you can by spreading hope and love and audacity."
After reaching out to Republicans and allowing them to offer changes to his $787 billion economic stimulus plan, Obama received the support of just three Republicans in the Senate and none in the House. Sabato says Obama learned from that fight and is now taking a more combative approach.
