Tag: Pres. Obama

What Should Obama Do? Any Ideas?

Trish

ObamaA lot of people aren’t happy with the state of American government right now and many blame Pres. Obama. On our team, we say that he should be more aggressive, more assertive, more…something.

But the only ideas we came up to win the debt ceiling battle were things that would have fueled the claims of birthers and others that his presidency is illegitimate – things like having the Treasury forge a magic coin that would cover the difference or use the Constitution’s 14th Amendment in a way unsupported by precedent and that would have ensured an impeachment drive from Republicans.

The absence of practical solutions was painfully clear on a recent segment of the Diane Rehm Show that focused on riots in England and related European economic problems. Kenneth Lieberthal of The Brookings Institution and former Clinton administration National Security Council member expressed progressives’ frustrations well but ran out of steam when reminded of Republican realities. So did Scheherazade Rehman, professor of International Business/Finance and International Affairs at George Washington University. Even a caller to the show resorted to the classic political candidate’s move of answering the question you prefer to be asked.

All three fell to Rehm’s query: “What can President Obama do?”

[…]

Force the Tea Party to Create Jobs, Part 2: Green Light Infrastructure Projects That House GOP Members Have Requested

Jon Ponder

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The tea party had a big success in early August when it fomented a fake debt ceiling crisis and then used that crisis to take the U.S. economy hostage. By threatening to force the United States into default and trigger a worldwide economic depression, they were able to force the president to accept budget that he and everyone else knows will further stall the recovery.

The biggest obstacle against enacting either of these innovative, politically aggressive ideas that they are probably a little too bold and in-your-face for Pres. Obama’s tastes.

There is little doubt now what the extreme right is up to. They want the economy to fail for the sole purpose of weakening the Obama presidency in order to help elect Mitt Romney next year. Then, they seem to be suggesting, Republicans will “fix” the economy presumably by cutting the corporate tax rate to zero and privatizing the federal government. That way they can finish the job Republicans started during the George Bush presidency of turning the United States’ assets and resources over to their masters, corporate oligarch like the Koch brothers et al.

The best way to fix the economy is to create jobs. There are 14 million Americans who are unemployed right now — that we know of. By putting them back to work, consumer spending will rise, demand for new goods and services will increase and the tax coffers will be replenished and we can start to pay down the national debt.

But the tea party and its poodles in the Republican congressional leadership have made it clear they will do everything in their power to stop job creation.

This is a nasty situation, and it has caused a lot of regular Americans to feel hopeless about the government’s ability to kickstart the economy. (And talk about the tail wagging the dog. While the 62 members of the Tea Party caucus represent 14 percent of the House, just 4 percent of Americans say they are active members of the tea party, according a new CBS/New York Times poll.)

However, in just the past few days, two new political solutions for spurring job growth have been proposed by members of the fourth estate. The ideas are similar in that they are both designed to force tea party Republicans to vote against infrascture projects in their own districts. In one case, the idea would be to force tea partyists like Michele Bachmann to vote against public works projects she herself has requested.

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Obama, the Stealth Moderate Conservative

Buck Banks

In a recent column, I argued that Barack Obama has in practice governed as a moderate conservative. Right wingers were, of course, incredulous, and insisted that he is a far left socialist no matter how thin the evidence. The truth is that Obama has always been moderately conservative — a fact that has been obvious to liberals dating back to the beginning of the 2008 campaign. It would be clear to conservatives as well if they weren’t so blinded by their partisanship and occasionally got their news from an unbiased source.

— Bruce Bartlett, writing in Fiscal Times.

Bitter Friday Fun Break

Trish

nfl-football-debt-ceiling-s

Time to laugh in the final hours of life as we knew it before Congress said, “Hold my hand. We’re jumping!” and took us all over the cliff of welshing on America’s debt, which they — Republicans included — authorized when they voted to spend all that money. As we call our collective Visa companies, we say, “You know all those restaurants I already ate at, and all the Netflix I already watched, and oh yeah, that big ol’ car repair bill I already used my card to pay for? Well I don’t want any of it now and I’m not going to pay for it. See ya!” We will pass the time waiting for Visa’s response by futilely contacting our elected officials and then blaming it all on Pres. Obama. Happy times.

Obama to Cantor: ‘Would Ronald Reagan Be Sitting Here? I’ve Reached My Limit?’

Pensito Editors

I have reached the point where I say, “Enough.” Would Ronald Reagan be sitting here? I’ve reached my limit. This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this.

– Pres. Obama to House Minority Leader Eric Cantor Wednesday night as he brought their umpteenth daily meeting on the debt ceiling crisis to a close.

The More Like Reagan Republicans Try to Be, the Less Like Reagan They Are

Trish

The question is, if Ronald Reagan could compromise, why wouldn’t folks who idolize Ronald Reagan be willing to engage in those same kinds of compromises?

— Pres. Barack Obama, trying to understand why today’s Republicans allow themselves to be bullied by Ronald Reagan protege Grover Norquist, putting their pledge to him above Ronald Reagan himself.