Same Old, Same Old Obama....No New Ideas...

Here it is in print now....Obama plans to pay for his $400 billion jobs plan by raising taxes on the rich, closing loopholes, but NOT addressing reforming the entire tax code....It's just more of the same old, same old...

Obama: Eat Dessert First

By Chris Stirewalt Published September 08, 2011 | FoxNews.com

Obama Seeks to Stimulate First, Pay Later

“$400 billion.”

-- Estimated price tag of President Obama’s stimulus package according to a Democratic official talking to FOX News colleague Ed Henry

President Obama likes to make things complicated. Instead of launching a jobs plan last month, he opted to wait until after his vacation. Rather than doing so in a published plan backed up by a short speech, he will give a long talk to a joint session of Congress.

And now we learn that that long-promised speech will not include his plan for paying for the stimulus projects he will propose. While his advisers say that the stimulus package of about $400 billion will be “paid for,” the president will address the paying for part in another speech at a later date.

At a moment when the nation is going through a crisis of confidence, this seems to Power Play to be way too much. To regain his footing Obama needs to be clear and concise, not so nuanced and complex that he needs two speeches to lay out the basics of his plan.

This strategy stems not just from the president’s preference for complexity, but also from a strategy on the economy.

Obama is determined to enact a tax increase for upper income earners, a dead letter due to bipartisan opposition to tax hikes in Congress. But because of the creation of a 12-member super committee charged with reducing increases to deficits over the next decade by $1.5 trillion, Obama has an avenue to put through a tax increase of sorts on top earners.

Obama’s plan is to call on the super committee to finance his plan for more spending and small-scale tax incentives by ending tax incentives for higher income individuals and corporations. Obama will say don’t reduce future projected deficits by $1.5 trillion, make it $2.

This way Obama can claim revenue neutrality for his third stimulus package but push off payments into the misty math of decade-long budget projections. This is not only a relatively painless way to pay for stimulus now, but also a way to make sure that Republicans don’t hijack the super committee and turn it into a vehicle for their preferred stimulation: tax reform.

If Obama moves the finish line for the super committee, he can prevent the GOP from pushing their plan that would close loopholes in the tax code and use the money to finance lower rates for individuals and businesses.