These budget negotiations were a giant win for the Republican Party. President Obama initially cut $40 billion from his own budget proposal -- and he got absolutely no credit for that. It was a very typical preemptive concession by the president. It was so typical, you wonder if he recognizes what an indisputably terrible strategy it is or if he has a different agenda.
So, after getting no credit for his original $40 billion concession, then the negotiations began at square one. The Republicans claimed in February that they wanted $32 billion in cuts from that point on. About a week ago, the president came out and announced that they had given the Republicans another $33 billion in cuts -- a billion more than they originally asked for. And still the Republicans wanted more.
Why not? They're dealing with the world's worst negotiator, why not ask for more? After February they came up with a brilliant good cop-bad cop strategy with the Tea Party, where they had the Tea Party force them to go to $61 billion in demands. Which pushed the spectrum out further to the right. They know President Obama will go to the middle of any spectrum, no matter how radical. And then once they had baited Obama out to the $33 billion number, which was past their original goal, they baited him out even further. Finally, they got him to $38.5 billion in cuts an hour before the deadline.
So, in the end, he got no credit for the original giant cuts, he got no credit for going a billion past the Republican's wildest dreams and he had to give them an extra $5.5 billion to get a deal. But what he doesn't realize is that the shutdown would have been a disaster for the Republicans -- they never wanted that. They were playing him the whole time. When Boehner came back with the deal, he got a rousing ovation from his side, including the Tea Party faction.
It was a put on. The whole time when the Tea Party was demanding the whole $61 billion, they were just playing their part in the game. They were the bad cop to make sure Obama made the deal with Boehner, the good cop. They must have had a good laugh at the end.
First, I want to make clear I am not a Monday morning quarterback. Anyone who watches me on The Young Turks or on MSNBC knows that I have been saying all along that Obama was going to fall for this trick and that he was going to go way past $33 billion. It's just who he is. He hates conflict. There almost isn't any deal you can't get him to sign off on. And that's my whole point for writing this -- we can not have him do this next time!
Next time, the negotiations are over trillions, not billions. If he meets them more than halfway -- as he has done every single time now -- it will be a colossal disaster. Whenever Republican presidents try to cut Social Security or Medicare, they run into a brick wall. If the Republicans use President Obama to help them do that instead, then he will have done more damage than a Republican president can.
I hear from Democrats every single time that they'll fight the next time. And it's never the next time. Well, this time we've hit the wall. The next negotiations will be inarguably the most important. If the president obamas this (yes, I used it as a verb), it will be catastrophic.
Now, I want to ask even the most ardent Obama supporters -- do you really believe the president is going to hold strong the next time around? Even you don't believe that, right? It's not who he is. He will look to get past partisan politics. What's the only way to do that when one side is being obstinate? To give in to them. How many times have we seen this movie?
I didn't write this to rub it in the face of the feckless Democrats who always wind up playing the role of the Washington Generals to the Republican Globetrotters (remember the Democrats have the White House and the Senate -- but they let the GOP run the place like they are totally in charge). I wrote it to tell you how incredibly important it is that you put real pressure on the president from the left. He will move to the middle of any spectrum!
If you don't help push the spectrum to the left, the Republicans will move it massively to the right -- and the president will fall for it.
The whole point of the insane, draconian, ridiculous Paul Ryan budget proposal for next year was to move the spectrum all the way to the radical right, so that they can lure Democrats to a false middle, that is in reality the far right.
It's time to stop playing nice with Democrats. Good cop-good cop doesn't work. We need a bad cop. We need a strong progressive wing to keep shouting "no deal!" every time the White House wants to concede (which will be every time).
You can ignore this, blame me and go hug the president one more time, but you won't be doing your side any favors. If you actually care about policy and progressive priorities, you must get tough with the president right now. There is no next time.
Follow Cenk Uygur on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheYoungTurks
Bush didn't make stipulations on executive salary and bonuses with the financial bail out. The bail out saved the financial industry, but they could have stipulated lowering mortgage interest rates, or incentives for employment growth. Obama made stipulations with the auto bail out. Now the auto industry is making money for the government. Remember, the republicans were fighting against the auto bailout, and saying that it would never work? Well it worked. The American auto industry was saved and who is fiscally responsible?
ALL economic activity is "redistribution of wealth." The fact that economic mobility in this country is nearly stagnant does almost nobody any good. Why should very many people support it?
By the way, the Bush tax cuts cost America roughly 2.1 trillion dollars on top of two unfunded wars. How about the people who have gotten the tax breaks over the last 10 years start sacrificing just 3% more? It amazes me that the GOP doesn’t blink when two married teachers are losing 10% of their family income, but Tea Party Neocons dress in revolutionary costumes because Obama wants to raise the rich tax rate 3%.
I just wish I knew what it would take to really pressure Obama to the point of respecting his base.
The Democrats despise their base, and there is nothing on which they will not cave and crumble like tissue paper.
And the POTUS is the very worst of the Democrats. There is no battle from which he will not back down when confronted by the Republicans.
I had hoped that Mr. Obama would be like FDR who relished the good fight, and who wanted his political adversaries to dislike him as much as he disliked them. And, in the end, FDR won big time for the people.
Mr. Obama is not a Democrat. He is a Corporatist. He does the bidding of the big contributors. He is planning his next job after being POTUS. What a disappointment.
I no linger care. No job, no prospects, no health insurance, all that energy spent on education and career building is for nothing, These dogs in congress are dismantling our society to enrich themselves and their friends and the one person who actually has the power to say "enough!", appears to be in on it.
I don't care anymore. I am 48 and, statistically, have about 25 years left on this rock. I've cast my last vote. As far as I'm concerned, let Bachmann or Palin or Barbour or Gingrich be president. It doesn't even matter. The inevitable future is almost in full view now and those of us, the "forgotten millions", need to take a reality check and decide how to prepare for the day when the American flag is nothing more than a corporate logo and the pie is all gone.
Obama promised change. What it will really take is a reset. It's happening before our eyes in smaller countries around the world today, with varying degrees of success, and it's happened numerous times throughout history in countries including our own. We are not immune or above the possibility of a reset. The only question is what form it will take. It's looking less likely that the ballot box will prevail.
This country is fast becoming a heartless corporate theocracy with no social safety net. Please prove me wrong.
I'm a couple of years older than you and feeling the same sense of futility. I have younger friends who are thinking about kids and, while I would never say it, all I can think is "why would you want to have kids in the USA while it is slipping away".
Good luck.
If you want him to pay attention, get him a Congress that will support him and is as loud as the Repugnuts. That's what it will take for any President you can get elected. I promise.
Stop with the excuses already.
Isn't more productive to put pressure on our congressmen and senators, after all the president can do is to sign or veto a bill.
A lot of progressives blame President Obama for losing majority in the Congress in the last election, and he deserves some of it. But wasn't it the congress with democratic majority who told the President last summer that they decided not to work and vote on budget for 2011 and went home? And as a result Obama had to deal with Boehner and obstinate Tea Party congressmen in 2011?
If all the democratic and independents voters voted in 2010 elections, we would have had Nancy Pelosi as a majority leader and a much better budget bill.
So, if you want to blame Obama for a lousy budget bill, go ahead. But it's our fault also.
The "winners" of a debate seem to be the side that sets the frames and parameters for the discussion rather than who makes the better argument.
If the debate is about how much spending to cut and how many tax cuts to give the wealthy and corporations who are already sitting on mountains of cash, then conservatives win. Even if progressives and liberals make a better argument and the cuts in spending and taxes are low, policy still moves in a conservative and destructive direction.
I genuinely do not understand why the President and most Democrats in Congress are not using the bully pulpit to change the debate into what is the best way to put people back to work and keep people working.
Tax cuts do not increase government revenues as supply-side conservatives like to delude themselves and the Bush tax cuts cost jobs, not created them.
If we allow conservatives to frame the debate, they win no matter what the arguments are.
This "let's come together and solve problems" is only helping conservatives because as long as they refuse to compromise and liberals do all the compromising, politics moves ever rightward.