The media and blogosphere are abuzz with apparent indications that Barack Obama stands poised to put real cuts to Social Security and Medicare on the table and his willingness to take heat from his own party. If he is serious, it represents the surest way I know to make himself a one term President. I can’t imagine that he doesn’t know that, but he strikes me as too smart to set up his own failure like that. It would be crazy, so I can’t help but speculate about whether or not he has something up his sleeve.
President Obama made no apparent headway on Monday in his attempt to forge a crisis-averting budget deal, but he put on full display his effort to position himself as a pragmatic centrist willing to confront both parties and address intractable problems.
At a news conference preceding the latest round of debt-reduction talks with Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders, Mr. Obama said he would not accept a temporary agreement to kick the problem down the road a few weeks or months.
He said that he was willing to take the heat from his own party to move beyond entrenched ideological positions and that Republicans should do the same. And he continued to insist on “the biggest deal possible,” saying that now is the best opportunity for the nation to address its long-term fiscal challenges.
Republicans dismissed his performance as political theater. But Mr. Obama’s remarks appeared to be aimed at independent voters as well as at Congressional leaders, and stood in contrast to the Republican focus on the party’s conservative base, both in the budget showdown and in presidential politics.
Mr. Obama’s remarks were among the clearest expressions yet of a repositioning effort that has been under way since the midterm elections last November, when Republicans captured the House and made inroads in the Senate.
Seeking to shed the image of big-government liberal that Republicans used effectively against him last year, he has made or offered policy compromises on an array of issues and cast himself in the role of the adult referee for both parties’ gamesmanship, or the parent of stubborn children… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <NY Times>
I asked myself why he would do this. It appears to be political suicide. It took his most loyal supporters aback. For example, Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment on Countdown cuts to the quick of the matter.
However, to get these concessions, Boehner would have to violate the holy dogma of Republican Pope Grover Norquist I: Thou shalt not tax millionaires, billionaires and corporate criminals. To do so would put the Republican party in a state of total disarray. InsaniTEA would rage and Teabuggery would reign, as virtually every Republican who voted to raise taxes on the super-rich would either lose the primary or face a Democrat and a Teabagger in the general. Just maybe, Obama is offering to put things on the table as a way to insure that he does not have to actually put them on the table at all, by forcing Republicans to cave in.
Then I discovered that Lawrence O’Donnell also hit on what I think Obama’s strategy just might be.
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Am I right? Maybe I am, and maybe I’m not. I encourage you all to keep those emails, calls, and petitions to Obama, your Representative, and your Senators flowing in. However, before we become completely unglued and make fools of ourselves, perhaps we should see how this plays out.
17 Responses to “Obama, Are you Crazy or Crazy Like a Fox?”
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I hope the president has his corporate campaign contributors all in line because I will not send a dime to his campaign or any other for that matter. SCROTUS has made the stakes at the table to big for Joe Coffee with cream to play at or make a difference in.. We, we the American people are nothing but pawns in this game and I for one resent that. Pawns are expendable, even though in a well played game a pawn can get close it can never get closer than a draw and in this game a draw the pawn loses and the king wins it all.. The right wants what little bit of money I still have and will get it when the bond market reacts to a default in the form of devaluing my dollar and the left wants what little integrity I have left as an American because I refuse to acknowledge their wonderfulness a small caucus may be looking out for my interests as a disabled man on SS which I paid an aggregate 52 years into. The president may have a grand strategy but it won’t be him and his millions or Bohener or McConnel or the rest of them who are not affected by SS and Medicare/aid that will be hurt by a default.
It will be the fantasy football players, the troops who are our sons and daughters, granny and grandpa and even them who at the moment still have a job. And the 4 trillion the government owes to Social Security which no matter what they say, that obligation is a part and portion of the national debt, simply because the government owes it to the people who paid into the system does not negate the fact that it is money owed and counted in the national debt.
Amen.
TomCat,
Let’s hope he IS duping the Republicans into a fatal blunder. With that liar Rupert Murdoch on the run and GOP-Tea Party tensions on the rise, now is definitely the time! Fan that flame, but don’t cave, Mr. President!
“perhaps we should see how this plays out.”~~TC I’m with you, TomCat! 😈
I’m hoping they make a fatal blunder too, Jack. It appears to be our only hope.
I’m hoping they make a fatal blunder too, Jack. It appears to be our only hope.
May Pope Grover eat batshit and die!
This is a pretty delicate high-wire act Obama is staging. So far, he has been proven right — the right-wing of the GOP will oppose ANYTHING he proposes, even to their (and the country’s) detriment.
Personally, I fired off emails to the President and my representatives, but it feels like just blowing in the wind — so now this has become a spectator sport for me, although a stomach-churning one.
It is frightening enough that he’s willing to put the big 3 on the table (SS, Medicare and Medicaid) without touching the sacred cows, the MIC, the 17 intelligence agencies and Homeland Security, all of which took 10 years to find Osama Bin Laden hiding in our “allies” territory. Not to mention the prosecution of Bush, Cheney, et al. This is a very serious game of chicken that he’s playing – like who will move out of the way on a head on collision at high speed.
I like to think Obama knows what he’s doing – if O’Donnell’s right it should work. The important thing is that Obama CANNOT blink.
I too watched O’Donnell last night and for the first time in a while I thought he might be on to something! Indeed Obama is not short in the IQ dept. – and if indeed this is his political reconnaissance it may be a brilliant one. Yes he must stand firm – and we’ll all just hope “reconnaisance” isn’t a “boomerang”!
No cuts to Social Security or Medicare—- period– no cuts to any program that affects how people live and survive ;; cut the military- raise taxes or restore tax level to pre Bush cuts–
I hope he knows what he is doing—
The $4T in spending cuts HAS to have some revenue increases in it, otherwise we will go deeper into this recession and make it a real depression. You can’t just hit the little people and not the rich – they’ve been getting away with this bullshit for 40 years now. The corporations should have to suffer too – when GE and Exxon Mobil doesn’t pay any taxes – there is something seriously wrong with our tax system.
If you are correct, Obama is basically bluffing with our money and our futures. However, almost every Republican has publicly pledged that they will not raise taxes – and they would end up on the Teabaggers hit list if they make this compromise. I guess I wouldn’t want to play poker with the President – he would have the entire table afraid to call. I guess a short-term deal will have to be made, and our entitlements will be determined by the next election. Thanks for making a good point.
Welcome Jed. 🙂
I apologize that I do not have the time to answer comments individually today. I appreciate your input and agree with almost everything.