Can we expect more from his State of the Union address tonight and his budget presentation on Thursday?
He’s limited by the fact that the investment bankers have taken over the administration. (Director of the Office of Management and Budget) Frank Raines, (Treasury Secretary Robert) Rubin and (White House Chief of Staff) Erskine Bowles are all former investment bankers, and they’re in charge. The accountants have taken over. So I think the State of the Union speech is going to be mostly about balancing the budget. But it’s going to be a little disingenuous because he will probably outline a lot of fixes that will appear to balance the budget in the short term. But I don’t think they’ll be taking on the more difficult long-term problems like entitlements. Both Clinton and the Republicans who control Congress say Medicare, one of the big entitlements, is on the table. I don’t think they’re going to step up to Medicare in a real way. They’re going to do a lot of accountant’s tricks that will have the effect of saving the Medicare trust fund and buying it more time, but really it will be bo
