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Title: Obama Could Benefit From Divided Gov't: Reagan-Bush Official
Source:
NPR
URL Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpoli ... -gov-t-ex-reagan-bush-official
Published: Oct 16, 2010
Author: Frank James
Post Date: 2010-10-16 01:14:44 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 22985
Comments: 46
A Republican-controlled House might be the best thing that could happen to President Obama. So writes Bruce Bartlett, an official in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, in a piece in The Fiscal Times. Bartlett makes several points. One, the Founders liked the idea of gridlock because it meant that, to be successful, legislation needed the support of coalitions and both chambers. Two, when one party controls Congress and the White House, as Democrats do for the time being, or as Republicans did during George W. Bush's administration, excesses tend to occur. He points to the massive spending on two wars and the expansion of social spending on the Medicate prescription drug program that occurred under the most recent unified Republican rule. Three, a Republican-controlled House would give Obama a better foil for his anti-GOP arguments as he heads into his re-election campaign than he has had to date. Republicans would have their hands on the wheel as well, making it easier for Obama's accusations to stick. The best thing for Republicans would be to work with Obama on issues where each has something potentially to gain, as Ronald Reagan did with tax reform in 1986 and Bill Clinton did with welfare reform in 1996. Entitlement reform might be the issue that brings them together — Obama may be willing to support reforms that Democrats in Congress wouldn’t dare touch and give political cover to Republicans for actions they would dare not take on their own, assuming they are serious about actually cutting spending . Bartlett's thinking tracks with what reporters who cover the White House have reported hearing are hearing from people inside the administration. The way things appear now, getting used to working within a divided government won't be an option for the Obama Administration. If White House officials seem like they're warming to the idea, it's probably out of a sense of the inevitable.
At this point, Americans’ well-documented fondness for gridlock, which has been confirmed in every poll ever taken on the subject, becomes Obama’s ally. They may be willing to elect a few crackpots to Congress, where they know they will have little influence individually, but take the election of a president much more seriously. And if they see a Republican Congress being excessively partisan — wasting time on witch hunts, extremely ideological measures that cannot be enacted over a presidential veto, an inability to perform the routine work of Congress such as passing annual appropriations bills or a debt limit increase, or even launching a Quixotic impeachment effort against Obama — then public opinion will change very, very fast.
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#6. To: jwpegler (#4)
He has reached out to dialog with the fussbudgets in the GOP. Constantly. It is they who have been unwilling to deal in a bipartisan manner.
suppose the Democrats lose the House but the tea-party nuts - O'Donnell, Angle, Paul, Miller, lose - who got repudiated?
Good question. American political landscapes have been so down the rabbit hole so long it's hard to find a known terrain feature reliable enough to shoot a back azimuth on to at least start to find where one is in the political jungle America had become.
Utter nonsense. He has never given consideration to any GOP suggestions, other than a few inconsequential ones that he thought would entice the three liberal GOP Senators from the New England to vote for his big spending plans.
Angle, Paul, and Miller are not nuts. Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama are the real nuts. Angle, Paul and Miller are all going to win their races. Just watch.
In that case you'll find out just how nuts they are.
You can't be serious - compare Obama's health care plan with the GOP plan that they introduced in 1993 as an alternative to Hillarycare, they are almost identical. Obama's plan also borrowed the idea of regional buying exchanges from the Heritage Foundation. Remember that Obama rejected the liberal single-payer approach (which he had campaigned on) because he said he couldn't get it through Congress (he never tried). And, let us not forget his decision to push for nearly $300 million in tax cuts as part of the stimulus as an effort to win Republican votes. What you should realize is that the main reason so many liberals are upset with Obama is because he tried so hard to make nice with Republicans.
When folks are claiming secret Chinese plots to take over the U.S., that the President was born in Kenya, that the civil rights act was a bad idea, and that fictional U.S. cities are under Sharia law, that qualifies as "nutty". The Republicans would be in a lot better position right now if they focused on fiscal conservatism instead of giving voice to every nutty conspiracy theorist under the sun.
Sounds like the GOP is suffering from an oppositional disorder.
In as much the GOPers have not responded enough to the many calls for dialog and to work together in a way that would produce suggestions from them, your words are just so much disingenuous nonsense.
But necessary to play the victim card.
Indeed. Well put.
Work with the democrats. Yeah right. We want to destroy the democrats. They are an evil bunch. You don't compromise with baby killers. You annihilate them.
Then why don't they dig foxholes in the Capitol and put gun at all the desks in the Senate? Stone, annihilation is no way to run a country with a constitution with checks and balances to share power to make everyone work together? You don't 'annihilate' political opponents in a Republic like ours', you work to convince them they are wrong and they get a turn to try to do the same. You make no sense here.
Democrats are evil. They need to be destroyed as a party. Voted out of office. Annihilated. Tossed to the curb. They need their heads slammed. Tarred and feathered. Targeted for defeat. Aimed at. They need to go down in flames. They ignore the Constitution so there is no need to pretend to be their friends and work with them.
You complain Muslims are hell bent to leather to destroy us, Isrealis and don't appreciate the good in those they hate, then you turn around and do much the same thing. There are a great many decent and good Democrats out there, and you just look small trying to pretend otherwise. You fail to see how there is a dynamic between political opponents that can bring the best out of both and make them and those and what they represent bigger. There is a tendency in this country to be small and myopic, Stone. Resist that and remember thst we are all at our best when we think big, act big, and keep our respect and love for each other warm, even when we disagree and even when we get somewhat annoyed things don't go exactly our way,
that sort of brouhaha wins you a primary, loses you a general, and makes you useless if you actually do get into government. Folks need to realize that governing is about compromise.
that attitude ends up with this: http://www.frumforum.com/waterloo
Stone's Christian jihad knows nothing about compromise, just like their Muslim brethren.
Living live in a two dimensional way leaves people flat and people see you lack depth more then you realize from that perspective. Stone needs to lighten up and work on his vantage point as he looks at the political process, events, and people around him in this country and the world.
-- What Helen Prejean says about destroying in the context of your religion.
And you're an idiot if you think there are two parties.
I believe YOU believe you're a Christian.
Honestly, you don't sound like a Christian or a supporter of the Constitution to me.
It looks like the small and myopic is in ascendence.
And it is a hard thing to take, watching that. But as long as one can remember not to let that destroy their center, and faith in people to rebound and rediscover the best in themselves, they have kept safe a valuble tool to use to keep themselves sane, and even use it to help guide others out of the jungle of hate and mob mentality back into the light. Never give up hope, always think, watch, learn and share; and you will outlast the dark times. You will have new appreciation for that which make us a good people and have new apprecation for what you know is good and right as you feel the knowing of it radiating from you heart and being. And always be kind to your enemies, and learn to forgive them and to invite them to do better. It is always better to work for what is right, just and good and to appreciate it, to save your energy and force for that; than to obsess about hatred and to hope for revenge, injury and suffering. Because in the end if you waste things of value on hatred and revenge, you will have squandered what you need to build what you value. You will have cheapened and cheated your own self. Even the most seemingly hopeless person can surprise you. Because we all have the capacity to change, to be infected by the strengh and goodness in others and to follow others out of hopeless infactuations with hatred and a suduction to greed and violence back into the light of community, sharing, and a desire to build and expand rather than to tear down, distroy, and ruin others merely to build themselves up. You can outlast the bad times, you can survive what the scoundrels among us try to to to us all. Never doubt that for a moment. When there is life for you or those you love, there is always hope.
He's one of those evangies who believes as long as he accepts Jesus no behaviors are considered too horrible to keep him out of heaven. And Catholics are claiming ODonnell as one of their own too. It's time for the popcorn.
"That Obama really isn't a hardened leftist ideologue and he would be willing to compromise. There is no evidence for that." He has reached out to dialog with the fussbudgets in the GOP. Constantly. Utter horseshit, FM. You don't even believe this.
Obama's first all-by-his-lonesome budget, btw, calls for a $1.17 trillion deficit.
I've heard "grace" defined as what God does within you, without you.
Some evangies feel that by accepting Jesus they get a personal get out of jail free card.
I've heard that defined as cheap grace.
I've heard that defined as cheap grace. That's the Opium. In the Old days you had to buy your way in. And note how Big Money is no longer evil?
In the Old days you had to buy your way in. Cheap grace has nothing to do with money. And note how Big Money is no longer evil? We worship a symbol.
Au Contraire! 8D Google cheap. See how many pp you have to scroll thru before 'religion' comes up. Again. Note how Wealth is no longer a barrier to 'getting in'. 8D If Communists made $$$, Americans would be Communist to a priest.
Utter nonsense. The GOP for example, put together a comprehensive healthcare reform packaged. Not only were they ignored by the Democrats, the Democrats ran around the country lying (as they alway do), claiming that the GOP didn't have any ideas. The voters will tell us in about two weeks who is disingenuous. That's the bottom line.
Exactly right. So please tell Obama and Biden to stop trash talking the Chamber of Commerce with their nonsense about secret foreign donations being funneled into the election.
Lucysmom, Just curious, did you write this earlier this year? #334. To: Suzanne (#333) First, birth control breaks the joyful connection between sex and the possibility of new life. Second, the most effective methods of birth control don't necessarily prevent the fertilization of the egg and thus are potential aborficants. lucysmom posted on 2010-05-16 16:24:39 ET
Sounds like something I might have written as a synopsis of the Catholic position on birth control.
I understand that (as a synopsis of the Catholic church's position), but it didn't sound like your opinion (and I'm not asking that). I just wondered if there was a bit of creative license being taken by someone.
What do you think was the creative part?
Try going back to that post; something about it doesn't ring true.
"That Obama really isn't a hardened leftist ideologue and he would be willing to compromise. There is no evidence for that."
#7. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
Reality check - Government spending is down, the deficit is down, government employment is down, and private hiring is up.
#8. To: go65 (#7)
#9. To: Ferret Mike (#6)
He has reached out to dialog with the fussbudgets in the GOP. Constantly.
That government is best which governs not at all -- Henry David Thoreau
#10. To: go65 (#7)
suppose the Democrats lose the House but the tea-party nuts - O'Donnell, Angle, Paul, Miller, lose - who got repudiated?
That government is best which governs not at all -- Henry David Thoreau
#11. To: jwpegler (#10)
Angle, Paul and Miller are all going to win their races. Just watch.
#12. To: jwpegler, ferret mike (#9)
He has never given consideration to any GOP suggestions, other than a few inconsequential ones that he thought would entice the three liberal GOP Senators from the New England to vote for his big spending plans.
Reality check - Government spending is down, the deficit is down, government employment is down, and private hiring is up.
#13. To: jwpegler (#10)
(Edited)
Angle, Paul, and Miller are not nuts. Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama are the real nuts.
Reality check - Government spending is down, the deficit is down, government employment is down, and private hiring is up.
#14. To: go65 (#12)
#15. To: jwpegler (#9)
#16. To: Ferret Mike (#15)
In as much the GOPers have not responded enough to the many calls for dialog and to work together in a way that would produce suggestions from them, your words are just so much disingenuous nonsense.
#17. To: lucysmom (#16)
#18. To: lucysmom (#16)
#19. To: A K A Stone (#18)
#20. To: Ferret Mike (#19)
#21. To: A K A Stone (#20)
"Democrats are evil. They need to be destroyed as a party."
#22. To: A K A Stone (#18)
Work with the democrats. Yeah right. We want to destroy the democrats. They are an evil bunch. You don't compromise with baby killers. You annihilate them.
Reality check - Government spending is down, the deficit is down, government employment is down, and private hiring is up.
#23. To: A K A Stone (#20)
Democrats are evil. They need to be destroyed as a party. Voted out of office. Annihilated. Tossed to the curb. They need their heads slammed. Tarred and feathered. Targeted for defeat. Aimed at. They need to go down in flames. They ignore the Constitution so there is no need to pretend to be their friends and work with them.
Reality check - Government spending is down, the deficit is down, government employment is down, and private hiring is up.
#24. To: go65 (#22)
Folks need to realize that governing is about compromise.
#25. To: Skip Intro (#24)
#26. To: A K A Stone (#20)
#27. To: A K A Stone (#20)
Democrats are evil.
#28. To: A K A Stone (#18)
Yeah right. We want to destroy the democrats. They are an evil bunch. You don't compromise with baby killers. You annihilate them.
#29. To: A K A Stone (#20)
They ignore the Constitution so there is no need to pretend to be their friends and work with them.
#30. To: Ferret Mike (#21)
There is a tendency in this country to be small and myopic, Stone.
#31. To: lucysmom (#30)
#32. To: lucysmom (#29)
Honestly, you don't sound like a Christian or a supporter of the Constitution to me.
#33. To: Ferret Mike (#6)
#34. To: mininggold (#32)
He's one of those evangies who believes as long as he accepts Jesus no behaviors are considered too horrible to keep him out of heaven.
#35. To: lucysmom (#34)
I've heard "grace" defined as what God does within you, without you.
#36. To: mininggold (#35)
Some evangies feel that by accepting Jesus they get a personal get out of jail free card.
#37. To: lucysmom (#36)
#38. To: mcgowanjm (#37)
That's the Opium.
#39. To: lucysmom, All (#38)
Cheap grace has nothing to do with money.
#40. To: Ferret Mike (#15)
In as much the GOPers have not responded enough to the many calls for dialog and to work together in a way that would produce suggestions from them, your words are just so much disingenuous nonsense.
If you want government to intervene domestically, you’re a liberal. If you want government to intervene overseas, you’re a conservative. If you want government to intervene everywhere, you’re a moderate. If you don’t want government to intervene anywhere, you’re an extremist. -- Joe Sobran
#41. To: go65 (#13)
When folks are claiming secret Chinese plots to take over the U.S
If you want government to intervene domestically, you’re a liberal. If you want government to intervene overseas, you’re a conservative. If you want government to intervene everywhere, you’re a moderate. If you don’t want government to intervene anywhere, you’re an extremist. -- Joe Sobran
#42. To: lucysmom (#38)
Curious...
#43. To: Suzanne (#42)
#44. To: lucysmom (#43)
#45. To: Suzanne (#44)
I just wondered if there was a bit of creative license being taken by someone.
#46. To: lucysmom (#45)
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