There is an article in The Hill today which discusses how president Obama is "losing altitude" quickly and badly needs a "win". According to the Hill, however, it is Republican opposition to Obama's program that has him stymied. It makes me wonder what planet the folks at The Hill inhabit.
Think about it! Obama's second term began with the extension of nearly all of the Bush tax cuts on a permanent basis. Over 99% of all taxpayers had their tax rates frozen at the lower Bush levels. Only those with incomes over $450,000 got their taxes raised. The Hill calls this an Obama victory, but it actually was a major coup for the GOP which opposed tax hikes. No longer can the expiration of tax rates and the automatic rise in taxes for everyone be used to club Congress into approving higher rates. The relatively small tax hikes approved were a small price to pay to settle the tax rates once and forever. Since that initial move, however, Obama has gotten nothing accomplished. Sequestration went into effect because Obama refused to make any meaningful compromise with the Republicans. The only proposal from the White House regarding spending cuts was to replace those cuts with spending increases and even bigger tax increases. No sane person would have expected that offer to fly; it was, indeed, insulting. Obama was counting on the effects of sequestration being so severe that the public would demand action an pressure Congress. It was a total miscalculation by Obama and his people, however, since the public has shrugged off the tiny slowdown in the rise of government spending that the sequester brought to Washington.
During the same time, we had the big debate in Washington about gun control. Rather than trying for measures that might actually reduce the chance of gun violence, the Democrats went for their old favorites which had little chance to impact criminal acts. So, the gun control bill died in the Democrat Senate. It was not stopped in a battle with Republicans; the president's own party killed the bill.
Next we had the Boston bombing; we learned that the federal government had been warned twice by Russia about the perpetrators but somehow couldn't figure out that these were dangerous people. Then came testimony about what actually happened in Benghazi from people who were actually in Libya that night. It was riveting and revealed both Obama's lack of interest in the matter and what seemed to be the triumph of political considerations for Obama over actions that might have saved the lives of the four Americans killed. Then we learned that Obama's IRS was persecuting conservative, leaking confidential tax information to Obama allies including the co-chair of his re-election campaign and also targeting Christian ministries (like Billy Graham), Jewish groups supporting Israel and pro-life groups across the country. Rather than finding out what had happened and telling the country, Obama and his people circled the wagons and told us nothing. Only Congressional hearings provided any detail at all. Then we had Obama's Attorney General lie to Congress about secretly snooping on reporters and all the details of that snooping came out. Then we had the news that Obama had increased the secret surveillance of the phone records, email, web searches and other personal data of people all across America and the world. None of this was due to Republican opposition.
We also had a debate on immigration in the Senate which resulted in a bill passed on a bi-partisan basis just a few weeks ago. The issue will come before the House in the upcoming months, but no one is certain of its fate. Republicans have not blocked it now.
So why would The Hill ascribe the failure of the first part of Obama's second term to Republican opposition? It is unreal! It is totally untrue. The second Obama term has been a disaster, but Obama has done it all by himself. It is true that the Republicans have not stepped in to rescue Obama from himself, but there is a basic rule in politics that says that when your opponent is committing suicide, it is best to get out of the way.
Think about it! Obama's second term began with the extension of nearly all of the Bush tax cuts on a permanent basis. Over 99% of all taxpayers had their tax rates frozen at the lower Bush levels. Only those with incomes over $450,000 got their taxes raised. The Hill calls this an Obama victory, but it actually was a major coup for the GOP which opposed tax hikes. No longer can the expiration of tax rates and the automatic rise in taxes for everyone be used to club Congress into approving higher rates. The relatively small tax hikes approved were a small price to pay to settle the tax rates once and forever. Since that initial move, however, Obama has gotten nothing accomplished. Sequestration went into effect because Obama refused to make any meaningful compromise with the Republicans. The only proposal from the White House regarding spending cuts was to replace those cuts with spending increases and even bigger tax increases. No sane person would have expected that offer to fly; it was, indeed, insulting. Obama was counting on the effects of sequestration being so severe that the public would demand action an pressure Congress. It was a total miscalculation by Obama and his people, however, since the public has shrugged off the tiny slowdown in the rise of government spending that the sequester brought to Washington.
During the same time, we had the big debate in Washington about gun control. Rather than trying for measures that might actually reduce the chance of gun violence, the Democrats went for their old favorites which had little chance to impact criminal acts. So, the gun control bill died in the Democrat Senate. It was not stopped in a battle with Republicans; the president's own party killed the bill.
Next we had the Boston bombing; we learned that the federal government had been warned twice by Russia about the perpetrators but somehow couldn't figure out that these were dangerous people. Then came testimony about what actually happened in Benghazi from people who were actually in Libya that night. It was riveting and revealed both Obama's lack of interest in the matter and what seemed to be the triumph of political considerations for Obama over actions that might have saved the lives of the four Americans killed. Then we learned that Obama's IRS was persecuting conservative, leaking confidential tax information to Obama allies including the co-chair of his re-election campaign and also targeting Christian ministries (like Billy Graham), Jewish groups supporting Israel and pro-life groups across the country. Rather than finding out what had happened and telling the country, Obama and his people circled the wagons and told us nothing. Only Congressional hearings provided any detail at all. Then we had Obama's Attorney General lie to Congress about secretly snooping on reporters and all the details of that snooping came out. Then we had the news that Obama had increased the secret surveillance of the phone records, email, web searches and other personal data of people all across America and the world. None of this was due to Republican opposition.
We also had a debate on immigration in the Senate which resulted in a bill passed on a bi-partisan basis just a few weeks ago. The issue will come before the House in the upcoming months, but no one is certain of its fate. Republicans have not blocked it now.
So why would The Hill ascribe the failure of the first part of Obama's second term to Republican opposition? It is unreal! It is totally untrue. The second Obama term has been a disaster, but Obama has done it all by himself. It is true that the Republicans have not stepped in to rescue Obama from himself, but there is a basic rule in politics that says that when your opponent is committing suicide, it is best to get out of the way.
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