Obama On Track To Break Records With Congressional Support

Congressional Quarterly:

As his presidency approaches the half-year mark, Barack Obama is on pace to be the most successful Oval Office occupant in more than half a century when measured by his ability to get Congress to vote his way -- even though he shows signs of carefully picking his fights on Capitol Hill.

Read the whole story: Congressional Quarterly

Comments

[Sumocat]

"...he shows signs of carefully picking his fights on Capitol Hill." -- Well, duh. It's only been six months, and he has eight years of mismanagement to clean up. Needs to be approached systematically.

[thegrifter]

Your BS War bankrupt the Country... Your dumb-it-down Public School system bankrupt the Country. Your Private Health Insurance monopoly bankrupt the Country. Goldman Sachs bankrupt the Country.
Your "trickle down" Reaganomics bankrupt the Country. Your selling out jobs and the middle class bankrupt the Country. Your Republican dominated Congress for the past 30 years bankrupt the Country. All because you sold the American people a bill-of-goods regarding foreign and domestic boogie-man issues with one hand... while undermining the middle class with the other. And now it's all come home to you and your smug assessment of Obama. A man who is up against a tidal wave of blunders and Republican bankrupt ideas, if only to restore the middle class.

[noneIn2008]

Don't buy the Dems vs Republicans facade. They are the same gang
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/the_great_american_bubble_machine/print#

[thegrifter]

BS they are not at all the same. (that is a magazine article) There are Dems that are not acting on the will of the voters and are still in the pockets of Big Insurance that need to be replaced and they will be voted out in the next term. Guaranteed. This country is in serious trouble, the kind of trouble that only your great grandparents can relate to. We're still falling down the financial rabbit hole where there is no room for Republican ideology.

[cyndeewi]

I believe that to a certain degree.

[SonofSolomon]

So many of these "do something" comments are indicative of the American fast food culture where people want everything yesterday. It is the reason people consume without regard to consequence, no matter if it is food, consumer goods, or real estate. I swear people are funny. The race isn't always to the swift. Nice work so far Mr. President.

[weatherwaxx]

Yes. After 8 years of a knee-jerk Presidency, where fast, reckless action was sold as strength and decisiveness, it's going to take Americans awhile to realize that it's better to think before acting. Luckily President Obama can do both.

[The Lorax]

Well said

[SoCalNick]

IMPOSSIBLE.>>>>>

The REAL pros at FAUX say he is all alone and the whole government is revolting against him every day!!

They say he has zero support even in his own Party!!

RUSH says so too!!

This CANNOT be correct!!

/ Snark

[weatherwaxx]

They've given up doing news and are trying to become the Comedy Channel, while the Daily Show and the Colbert Report are giving us more real news than Faux ever did.

We live in interesting times...

[ProtectTheBabies]

FOX has #1 rated shows in most time slots. Your beloved purveyor of liberal misinformation, MSNBC, just fired half its reporter/anchors and is now fuddling along in the morning with Dylan Ratigan, who is a conservative and blasting ALL of Obama's economic policies. You Liberal Dems sure have a strange way of twisting the facts around to what suits you best. Just wait until Obama's done with our country and we owe $20 TRILLION and have 20% unemployment.

[Truthahn]

Wow. With huge Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, a Democratic President is getting a lot of congressional votes going his way. What an absolutely stunning surprise. It's the journalistic scoop of the century.

[PJay1]

LOL!

[mjeffn]

...and there is a reason for this reality...republicans!

[MIKEBC]

We need healthcare reform with a public option and for any dem senators who dont want this, vote to replace them with other dems next year!

[cyndeewi]

I agree MIKEBC!

[NedroidPrime]

Thats nice....

Now what do we have to do to get them to start supporting the people?!

Seriously, O is doing great on foriegn policy and all, but domestically he is doing about as good as I expected SP to...

[wandering girl]

then you had overinflated expectations of SP.

[tigerakabj]

This is how he keeps his opponents off-balance all the time.

They complain about him moving to fast or working too much b/c it's hard to label him whatever scare word of the day is (i.e. marxist, stalinist, socialist, jacobin) when he's tackling many issues at once. By the time one lands on a smear and gets their talking points together, he's moved on to the next issue(s).....constant moving target he is.

Yo quiero single-payer and energy independence.
But I get it that not enough progressives are in office right now, but public option at the very least is what he is working on (we may not be able to wipe out the insurance companies in one fell swoop). As for energy independence he has created a single, universal standard of gas mileage, pumped billions from the recovery act, and passed the cap&trade in the House. So he's working on those fronts.

When I get p*ssed at him, I remember what he's already done and think about the alternative that could have been elected. Some of the things may take a little longer than others to achieve, but it is plain as day that he's working (harder than any president I've seen) and not just talking. Great work Obama.

[teron678]

I laugh at these Repubs complaining about Deficits ....... not one of their 3 previous presidents (Raygan, Bush I & Bush II) balanced the budget .. they all increased the deficit ......

Even their GAWD Raygun ... raised taxes .. for GAWDS sake ...

It seems the are only vocal & concerned about these stuff when they are out of power ...

The only president to balance the budget in the last 30 years was a Democrat .... I wonder why???

[Joe Caps]

http://blog.heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/wapoobamabudget1.jpg

Ever heard of something called "magnitude?"

It's about scale buddy. Small deficits (especially in times of war) are not that big of a deal.

HUGE Deficits (3-4x Bush's largest for 09) is a big deal, especially when other entitlements (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security) are due to come crashing down and bleeding red ink in 8-20 years.

Look at the scale and the reasons, it makes a difference.

Obama has no plans whatsoever to pay down the debt. He plans to leave that for the next guy (which will most likely be a Republican, who you will claim is evil when he starts cutting programs to bring our budgets back down to reality -- Obama will leave the dirty work for the next president).

[Grunty1]

[ (3-4x Bush's largest for 09)]

Laughable. NOT EVEN CLOSE TO REALITY.

[ibsteve2u]

When you include a link to heritage.org, you fairly shout that your view of the world is monocular.

[indy100]

Ah, that's EXACTLY what George W did; leave the dirty work. He flushed the US economy, and eventually even the world economy down the toilet and it all backed up right before he left office.

[Raccoon1]

I'm sure Hillary will be able to handle it if it come to that.

[hardlyhikin]

When you add the cost of the wars into the budget (which Obama has done and Bush NEVER did), Obama's budget is only slightly larger than Bush's. Given the shape Bush left the country in Obama's budget is modest.

As I remember, Bush inherited a surplus but increased the budget when he cut taxes for the rich and started his war against Iraq but he promised he'd cut the deficit in half by the end of his first (and later, second) term. Neither was true and the deficit continued to grow throughout his Presidency - even without counting the cost of the wars.

[Conservador-Rebelde]

When Obama's first year deficit is only slightly larger than Dubya's entire term, I think there's a problem.

[rich misty]

Back that up with a link to an accepted source... No some extreme right wing blog or "think tank" like the Heritage Foundation.

[weatherwaxx]

I think there's a problem with your math.

[joetherealist]

Laughable. 100% false.

[cyndeewi]

LOL

[EHarold]

Awesome now do something.

[fame]

haha, my thoughts exactly.

[teron678]

LOL

[cjk002]

You mean like health care? Cap and Trade? Getting out of Iraq? Closing Guantanamo? Improving foriegn relations?

He's working on all of that, and he's only been president for 6 months.

You whiners need to get over yourselves and let the man do his job. It's ridiculous to expect that everything you want will happen this fast. As this article points out, he is getting more through congress than most presidents could hope for.

[starkcr31]

You act as though Cap and Trade and universal health care are positive things. Hilarious!

[nellie]

He's successful because his agenda is the American people's agenda, and he has our support. Which means congress hears from its constituents and is motivated to support the same agenda.

[Collielady]

Congratulations, Mr. President. Now use your political capital for single payer, or a public option at the very least. There's no excuse.

[DestinationsUnknown]

Yes we can

Change we can believe in

Thank you President Obama

[Joe Caps]

Kool Aide! Kool Aide! Kool Aide!

Hope n' change baby!

[Taz2]

No Kool Aide is thinking Palin has substance!!!

[Grunty1]

A little early to be sloshed on the "kooaid", isn't it?

[huffingt]

Good work Obama.
You are a role model to others with work ethics, civility, commitment for public service, family life and fitness, healhy eating and sports.
You are also crushing the Rethugs
Superman.

[Truthahn]

Crushing the Rethugs? He's adopted or exceeded most of the Bush secrecy and national security policies. In some ways, he has become a Rethug.

[Joe Caps]

Bring it on.

You see, Obama and the Dems are having such an easy ride because they have not brought up how on earth they are going to pay for all this. Once that question comes up...Hello Republican Majorities!

All these plans sound great until everybody realizes it is going to bankrupt our country. Once people snap out of it, nobody will want to touch a liberal with a 12-foot pole.

Leave it up to the libs to be deceptive though, its the only way they can get their policies passed. Promise all the goodies now, don't talk about paying for it until later.

The only exception to this is the SCHIP Cig tax, which Obama used to break his promise to not raise taxes on people like me who do not make a great deal of money.

[DestinationsUnknown]

Don't worry- Obama will educate you

Stay tuned

[starkcr31]

In what, the art of ruining a country's economy?

[Grunty1]

Paragraph #1) They did, you just ignored it
Paragraph #2) Too late. Dubya already did, with nothing to show for it.
Paragraph #3) Leave it to Rushpublicans to project.
Paragraph #4) Then quit smoking. You'll save a ton of money and live a longer life.

[Joe Caps]

But then who will pay for SCHIP?

Wait a second, you mean that this type of taxation (which is highly regressive, by the way...that means it impacts the poor the most) may be self-defeating?

If it's goal is to make everybody quit, then where will the revenue come from.

Methinks the libbies are not too good at revenue schemes.

[brainpower]

You are not required to pay the SCHIP Cig tax - just don't buy them. You have a choice.

[Joe Caps]

If you read what I was saying I was actually commending them for trying to fund something, which is what they are not doing with everything else. I could have left that statement out but that would have been dishonest of me to claim that they refuse to fund anything when they have in the case of SCHIP.

It upsets me that Obama broke his promise not to raise my taxes so early. I was not complaining about the tax (not to say that I support it), I leave the whining up to babies and liberals.

All that said, that is a pretty lame argument. Couldn't you say that about ALL taxes?

Don't like paying income tax? Don't work!
Don't want to pay taxes on your house? Live in the woods!

[thegrifter]

Your BS War bankrupt the Country... Your dumb-it-down Public School system bankrupt the Country. You Private Health Insurance monopoly bankrupt the Country. Goldman Sachs bankrupt the Country.
Your "trickle down" Reaganomics bankrupt the Country. Your selling out jobs and the middle class bankrupt the Country. Your Republican dominated Congress for the past 30 years bankrupt the Country. All because you sold the American people a bill-of-goods regarding foreign and domestic boogie-man issues with one hand... while undermining the middle class with the other. And now it's all come home to you and your smug assessment of Obama. A man who is up against a tidal wave of blunders and Republican bankrupt ideas, if only to restore the middle class.

[bannorhill]

It was a necessart war to fight. As the President explained:

"I say to Saddam Hussein, "You cannot defy the will of the world," and when I say to him, "You have used weapons of mass destruction before; we are determined to deny you the capacity to use them again."