Dems face internal revolt over Obama agenda

by tikun | March 10, 2009 at 12:09 pm
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Reality has hit Washington.

By Shailagh Murray

Democratic leaders in Congress did not expect much Republican support as they pressed President Obama's ambitious legislative agenda. But the pushback they are receiving from some of their own has come as an unwelcome surprise.

As the Senate inches closer to approving a $410 billion spending bill, the internal revolt has served as a warning to party leaders pursuing Obama's far-reaching plans for health-care, energy and education reform.

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1
Roy C

Blue dog democrats don't want to be voted out and replaced by the republicans they have just defeated.

The more extreme left is so nuts that they don't get it.

0
tikun

They are blinded by there own self-importance. They actually believe that they know that "father/Big Government/ knows best".

1
QueensHart

The media will not cover the division either of the democrats.  It is more shocking to cover

Limbaugh.  There are many independents who support Rush but not his intense methods .  They

do support his concepts of knowing this change will not succeed in the long run or the short one.  I believe there are obnoxious democrats we have to listen to that no one seems to

care about (more so on television)  I did not agree with policies of the Bush admiinistration

but gee whiz the bashing he received everywhere...?  We will see how it will get with Obama

when they realize they have elected a performer.  We would have elected anyone to have

change unfortunately.  The republicans had no real good candidate and no real leader now.

That does not mean their issues are dead.  We must have another party which hopefully

will come by the next election.  Surely there can be a third way.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/188565?GT1=43002

  • The $787 billion stimulus, gargantuan as it was, was in fact too small and not aimed clearly enough at only immediate job-creation.
  • The $275 billion home-mortgage-refinancing plan, assembled by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, is too complex and indirect.
  • The president gave up the moral high ground on spending not so much with the "stim" but with the $400 billion supplemental spending bill, larded as it was with 9,000 earmarks.
  • The administration is throwing good money after bad in at least two cases—the sinkhole that is Citigroup (there are many healthy banks) and General Motors (they deserve what they get).
  • The failure to call for genuine sacrifice on the part of all Americans, despite the rhetorical claim that everyone would have to "give up" something.
  • A willingness to give too much leeway to Congress to handle crucial details, from the stim to the vague promise to "reform" medical care without stating what costs could be cut.
  • A 2010 budget that tries to do far too much, with way too rosy predictions on future revenues and growth of the economy. This led those who fear we are about to go over Niagara Falls to deride Obama as a paddler who'd rather redesign the canoe.
  • A treasury secretary who has been ridiculed on "Saturday Night Live" and compared to Doogie Howser, Barney Fife and Macaulay Culkin in "Home Alone"—and those are the nice ones.
  • A seeming paralysis in the face of the banking crisis: unwilling to nationalize banks, yet unable to figure out how to handle toxic assets in another way—by, say, setting up a "bad bank" catch basin.
  • A seeming reluctance to seek punishing prosecutions of the malefactors of the last 15 years—and even considering a plea bargain for Bernie Madoff, the poster thief who stole from charities and Nobel laureates and all the grandparents of Boca. Yes, prosecutors are in charge, but the president is entitled—some would say required—to demand harsh justice.
  • The president, known for his eloquence and attention to detail, seemingly unwilling or unable to patiently, carefully explain how the world works—or more important, how it failed. Using FDR's fireside chats as a model, Obama needs to explain the banking system in laymen's terms. An ongoing seminar would be great.
  • Obama is no socialist, but critics argue that now is not the time for costly, upfront spending on social engineering in health care, energy or education


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Roy C
First Flagged at 2:29 PM, Mar 10, 2009 by Roy C
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