But other White House priorities, such as health-insurance changes and new financial regulations, coming during the economy's recovery phase, have injected a big dose of uncertainty into the plans of business operators. How will their costs for providing health insurance change? What changes will banks make and how will that affect the fees they charge customers?
The other big unknown had been what would happen to President George W. Bush's tax cuts.
In a speech in Cleveland on Wednesday, Obama clearly called for the retention of tax cuts for households making $250,000 and individuals making $200,000 and allowing tax cuts to expire for the wealthy - defined as those earning more than those amounts.
In a recession, the last thing you want to do is raise taxes and cut government spending - trillion-dollar deficit or not. When Washington has done so after previous downturns, the results have been disastrous.
But deficitoholics that we are in the United States, we have to admit we have a problem (I think we have) and then take deliberate, thoughtful steps to fix the nation's finances (not even close).
So while I applaud the president for seeking to maintain the Bush tax cuts for hoi polloi and, perhaps, spur consumer spending, in this time of economic wooziness, I have to pan the timing. My problem is that this sudden push is 100 percent about politics, not their appropriateness.
Despite Obama's protests to the contrary, these are not long-term moves. They are short-term feints to defend his Democratic Party.
That's politics, you say.
