President Obama takes on deal’s Democratic critics

President Obama takes on deal’s Democratic critics

Josh Gerstein
Politico.com
Dec. 7, 2010

Under pressure from liberal critics to show more backbone, President Barack Obama came out swinging Tuesday — but at those same Democrats, who’ve spent the last 24 hours trashing his deal with the GOP extending tax cuts for the wealthy.

During a hastily-called White House press conference, Obama vowed he would continue to make the case that the tax cuts should only be extended to the middle class and insisted that the agreement he announced Monday does not represent a capitulation that will be followed by major concessions to Republicans on other issues.

But he grew most animated at the end of the half-hour session when he was asked about criticism from Democrats who wanted a bigger showdown with the GOP over the tax issue.

“You know, so this notion that somehow, you know, we are willing to compromise too much, reminds me of the debate that we had during health care. This is the public option debate all over again,” Obama said, referring to the criticism he received from liberals who loudly criticized him during the health care debate for not pushing for a government-backed plan that would compete with private insurers.

“We finally get health care for all Americans, something that Democrats have been fighting for a hundred years, but because there was a provision in there that they didn't get, that would have affected maybe a couple of million people, even though we got health insurance for 30 million people…that somehow that was a sign of weakness and compromise,” Obama said. “If that's the standard by which we are measuring success or core principles, then let's face it: We will never get anything done.

“People will have the satisfaction of having a purist position and no victories for the American people. And we will be able to feel good about ourselves and sanctimonious about how pure our intentions are and how tough we are, and in the meantime the American people are still seeing themselves not able to get health insurance because of preexisting condition, or not being able to pay their bills because their unemployment insurance ran out,” the president declared. “That can't be the measure of — of how we think about our public service. That can't be the measure of what it means to be a Democrat.”

Obama spoke as some liberal lawmakers and progressive activists railed loudly against the agreement Obama announced Monday to head off an increase in income taxes for all taxpayers set to take effect on January 1.

The deal cut with the GOP includes a two-year extension of expiring Bush-era income tax cuts, a 13-month extension of expiring unemployment benefits, and a 2 percentage point reduction in payroll taxes for the next year. It also preserves some other expiring tax benefits, like child care and tuition credits.

Obama said he had little choice because GOP leaders were willing to cripple the weak economy and increase joblessness in order to get their way.

“I think it’s tempting not to negotiate with hostage takers, unless the hostage gets harmed, then people will question the wisdom of that strategy,” Obama said.“In this case the hostage was the American people and I was not willing to see them get harmed.”

At one juncture, Obama extended the hostage-taking metaphor by talking about escorting the American people to a “safe place” where they might be protected from the political crossfire. But the president insisted that his decision to cut the deal did not signal that Republicans will have the upper hand in future battles – or that he will avoid those battles.

“I don’t think so. This is a very unique circumstance. This is a situation in which tens of millions of people would be very directly damaged and deeply damaged,” Obama said. “I will be happy to see the Republicans test whether or not I’m itching for fight on a whole range of issues. I suspect they will find I am…..I’ve got a whole bunch of lines in the sand.”

While most criticism of Obama’s plan has come from liberals, there were signs Tuesday that even some moderates were troubled by the package of tax cuts and spending on unemployment benefits, none of which are offset by tax increases or spending cuts. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said she was puzzled by Obama’s endorsement of the deal in light of his campaign-trail rhetoric that tax cuts for the rich were unaffordable in light of the massive deficit.

Obama said that the case for ending the upper-income tax cuts would be even more plain by 2012, when American realize the tradeoffs required to contain the ballooning national debt.

“In that context, I don't see how the Republicans win that argument,” the president said. “I don't know how they are going to be able to argue that extending permanently these high-end tax cuts is going to be good for our economy, when, to offset them, we'd end up having to cut vital services for our kids, for our veterans, for our seniors.

Obama’s critics have expressed anger at what they say is his failure to take his case to the public and target Republicans as the party of the wealthy. But Obama said there was nothing wrong with his communication skills.

Voters have shown support for his position, he said. The problem has been Republican intransigence over what he called the party’s “holy grail” of tax cuts for the wealthy.

“This is not a situation in which I have failed to persuade the American people of the rightness of our position. I know the polls the polls are on our side on this……I am not arguing from a position of political weakness,” Obama said.

With liberals complaining that Obama had broken his promise to end the tax cuts for the wealthy, Obama stressed that extending the tax cuts for the middle class was also keeping “a promise I made during the campaign, a promise I made as president.”

As for Democrats concerned about lower and middle class families, Obama said this agreement amounts to a far more direct benefit to those groups than other programs the government might pursue or that would come from insisting on a more progressive tax policy.

“The single most important jobs program we can put in place is a growing economy. The single most important anti-poverty program we can put in place is making sure the economy is growing,” Obama said, using rhetoric often heard from Republican leaders.
Obama suggested that many of his critics on the left and the right were insular, even effete, and unrealistic about the views of other Americans.

“This is a big, diverse country. Not everybody agrees with us. I know that shocks people. You know, the New York Times editorial page does not permeate across all of America. Neither does The Wall Street Journal editorial page,” he said.

The president even threw a not-so-subtle counterpunch at Democratic critics in Congress, noting that they could have voted on the tax cut issue earlier in the year, but chose not to for political reasons.

“I have said I would have liked to have seen a vote before the election. I thought this was a strong position to take into the election to crystallize the position of the two parties,” he said.

Watch for the Democrat infighting to begin. And guess what? It's going to get worse in the next two years because after the new congress is seated, Obama is going to have to compromise even more.

I'm all for compromise. You don't always get what you want, so you take what you can get. This is what Obama did and I commend him for it. But until the bill ends up at his desk, it's on the congressional Democrats shoulders. The GOP took what they could get. The Dems can (and should) do the same.

Even funnier was reading reader comments in the Minneapolis paper. The liberals in Minnesota are going hysterical over this. and I mean hysterical. It's a hoot.

Democrats control Congress and they couldn't even pass a bill that wouldn't extend tax "cuts" for the rich. Then they blame the Repubs when the Dems could have passed it on their own.