Republicans do. Might not be what the country needs now. Focusing on balancing the budget in a time when we’re worried about another economic slowdown makes no sense. But hey, give them credit, that’s where we are right now.
Why? Because the GOP is on message, and Democrats … are rudderless.
I’ll give President Obama credit, before then lobbing a critique. The credit: He’s tried to work with the other side of the aisle. The health-care reform that Republicans hate so much is a Republican health-care reform. The insurance mandate is a Republican idea dating back to the early 1990s and the conservative Heritage Foundation and the mid-2000s and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Obama embraced it early in his administration because he thought Republicans would have to support their own idea.
Same as he’s jumped on board the race to the bottom that is the Republicans’ plan for addressing the jobless recovery from the recession that was the doing of six years of spending recklessness on the part of Republican majority rule in the Bush years. Wait, you say, maintaining tax breaks for the wealthy while opposing the continuation of payroll deductions that put more money in the pockets of the working and middle class isn’t a plan for addressing the economic troubles we continue to face? Whatever.
To the critique: It was plainly obvious early into the Obama presidential term that Republicans weren’t going to be willing to do anything to work with him on … anything. His repeated overtures to find common ground, thus, have only served to move the country back to the right at a time when economic policy needs anything but a rightward lurch.
It’s easy to point the finger at Republicans – hell, they were willing to drive the country to the brink of bankruptcy to score political points, which is beyond reprehensible. I don’t see too many pointing at the person we could start calling the Enabler-in-Chief, because it takes two to tango.
Here’s to Obama developing a spine, and fast, at the risk of the total collapse of the U.S. economy.
More columns at TheWorldAccordingToChrisGraham.com.
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