Obama Channels Pelosi in Polarizing the Country
By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Most folks I know like Barack Obama. Seems like a great guy. They want him to succeed. But more and more I'm hearing how they are very, very worried about the level of spending—and the resulting debt—he's proposing. Michael Boskin, former head of the Council of Economic Advisors and an economist at Stanford, ran the numbers and wrote in the Wall Street Journal last week that Obama's spending would cost middle-class families well below the president's threshold for tax hikes upwards of $200,000 in higher taxes over the next 10 years. That's without a tax hike. Just service on the debt alone. No wonder people are concerned. That's a second mortgage for most people.
They thought we were getting Barack Obama, an Evan Bayh Democrat governing in a post-partisan era from the center, building coalitions on important issues to get things done in a fiscally responsible way. But instead we got Barack Obama, a Nancy Pelosi Democrat from the old school of big spending, big taxing, government-will-fix-it-all politics of the far left. As a result, things are getting ugly—one Republican congressman called the speaker "Tom Delay in a skirt"—as the president's budget heads to the House-Senate conference committee that has all but shut out Republicans.
Michael Gerson writes about the polarizing effect of the budget battle in Congress:
It would have been relatively easy for President Obama to divide the Republican coalition, peeling off less-partisan Republicans with genuine outreach. Many Republicans were prepared to accept short-term deficits to stimulate the economy in exchange for long-term fiscal responsibility. Obama could have focused more narrowly on resolving the financial crisis—the key to all economic recovery—and delayed his ambitions on other issues to a more realistic time. In the process, he might have gotten some Republicans to share his political risks instead of nursing grievances on the sidelines.
In the long run, Gerson argues, this divisive approach that the president is taking changes "the core of his political identity" as a moderate, no-drama unifier who was going to put all the partisan fighting of the last 16 years behind us. Instead, he's helping fuel the polarization of America, encouraging class warfare, and, at least on the budget, following Nancy Pelosi's lead and shutting out Republicans.
It seems "Yes we can" has turned into "Oh no you won't."
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Tags: Senate | federal budget | Barack Obama
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Reader Comments
Less self identified republicans
There are less self identified Republicans as a percentage . Moderate ones declared themselves Independents. So what is left in the Republican party when polling is more right wing and therefore looks more polarized. No surprise there. The "most polarizing President" spin is hype.
Oh my, I've seen the light!
Yes it's a great plan to continue to throw BILLIONS into the bailout "blackhole" without getting anything for OUR money.
Instead of the Government "telling" the banks to do anything, the funds "pay" the banks to rewrite mortgage loans. The news reports already show delinquency rates on "prime" mortgages are rising. There IS a second Tsunami of foreclosures coming unless THE problem is addressed.
The morthgage crisis got us into this mess, fixing it will get us out.
A partisan message in the name of non-partisanship
Mr. Petty spouts his usual faux centrism in the pursuit of partisan advantage. His suggestions are no good either. Petty suggests lowering the mortgage rates for everyone but I thought Republicans were against the government telling the private sector what to do. It's a fine trap that Petty suggests. If the Obama administration actually followed Petty's plan, then they would be subsequently nailed by Republicans like Petty for being communist and taking over the private sector.
Aside from the politics, it's a bad idea just on its merits. Lowering everyone's interest rates would lower the rates for people who are easily making their mortgage payments and thus be a waste. The real problem is the loans that are going into default. The problem lies at the margin, not at those well within the margin (those who are well-to-do and easily make their payments). The problem is with people who are NOT making their payments and thus not paying the bank. If lots of people do not repay their loans, then that causes the bank to not have enough money in its vaults to cover all the money that people can take out of the bank. That is the situation before a run on the banks. So any relief needs to be targeted at people who could stay in their homes and pay their mortgage with a little bit of help/lowering interest rates on their mortgage.
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