By using the fiscal cliff as the first stage of his political strategy, President Obama is already two steps ahead of Republicans on the debt ceiling.
Moments after the House passed the fiscal cliff deal, President Obama had already started winning the battle over the debt ceiling.
Before the Republican congressional leadership had a chance to utter a word about the debt ceiling, the president said,
But we can’t simply cut our way to prosperity. Cutting spending has to go hand-in-hand with further reforms to our tax code so that the wealthiest corporations and individuals can’t take advantage of loopholes and deductions that aren’t available to most Americans. And we can’t keep cutting things like basic research and new technology and still expect to succeed in a 21st century economy. So we’re going to have to continue to move forward in deficit reduction, but we have to do it in a balanced way, making sure that we are growing even as we get a handle on our spending.
Now, one last point I want to make — while I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they’ve already racked up through the laws that they passed. Let me repeat: We can’t not pay bills that we’ve already incurred. If Congress refuses to give the United States government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic — far worse than the impact of a fiscal cliff.
Unlike what happened during the healthcare debate and the first debt ceiling crisis, President Obama was not about to give Republicans a moment to breathe and formulate their strategy on the debt ceiling. While Republicans were still fighting among themselves over the fiscal cliff deal, the president was already taking his case about the debt ceiling to the American people.
Obama’s seizing of the issue has established the media narrative, and left Republicans playing catch up. During his Sunday show interviews today, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked repeatedly about raising more revenue as part of a debt ceiling deal. McConnell was left playing defense, and forced to repeat the same just say no obstruction/blame Obama talking points that he has been using for years.
It is becoming obvious that while congressional Republicans are bumbling from one self created crisis to the next, the White House is using a comprehensive strategy for dealing with the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling, and the sequester.
As Republicans continued to point fingers and blame for the fiscal cliff deal, President Obama had already moved on to the debt ceiling. The president is two steps ahead of his adversaries, and it looks like the debt ceiling is going to turn into a game of political chicken. Obama is going to sound reasonable in tone, but dare congressional Republicans to default. Republicans have now caved on the payroll tax extension in 2011 and the fiscal cliff in 2012, so the White House is betting, with good reason, that they will blink again on the debt ceiling.
The president has public support, the better message, organization, and plan. Obama is running circles around the Republicans while dysfunction, disagreement, and chaos have paralyzed their party. Republicans will bluster about letting the nation default, but no one believes for a second that the big money interests who really run the party will ever let that happen.
Congressional Republicans have demonstrated repeatedly that they don’t have the stomach to carry out their threats. A much wiser President Obama has learned to ignore the right’s empty threats while exploiting the fragmented disorganization of their caucus.
While Republicans are trying to dig themselves out of their fiscal cliff hole, Obama is digging in for another win on the debt ceiling.
PoliticusUSA
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djchefron
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 5:25 pm
Mr.President do not listen to the village, it is time to start using OFA.As you so eloquently put it,Please Proceed.
Obama to draw on public support in next round of economic battles with GOP
Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/275759-obama-will-draw-on-public-support-in-negotiating-with-gop#ixzz2HEkbGjwk
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Nefer
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 5:36 pm
Too bad for the republicans that their foam at the mouth base, demanding constant warfare against women, gays, people of color, immigrants, and pretty much everyone who is not a christianist straight white male, doesn’t realize that they are useful idiots only, and that the moneyed interests behind the scenes are who their duncerrific congresscritters really answer to.
(How’s that for a run-on sentence? Sorry!)
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fredaruthproject
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 7:17 pm
Well said!
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Sugapea
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 5:52 pm
Send our thoughts of ‘Strength’ to Obama.
This is a must-read!
Iceland Was Right, We Were Wrong: The IMF
http://www.zcommunications.org/iceland-was-right-we-were-wrong-the-imf-by-jeff-neilson
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Grasshopper
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 6:42 pm
Just keep your eye on Wall St., they will never let it happen. Rat bastard republicans, willlng to shut down the government. Hopefully 2014 will shut them down, I can’t wait.
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garbonzo beans
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 8:20 pm
add that the prez wants hagel a freakin veitnam war hero and repected gop senator, for defense. and there is your classic triangulation. the prez is going to make the GOP into a little nub before 2014. and lets not forget that almost all the GOP are chicken hawks and neocons who never enlisted or skanked out like bush cheney rummy and their pals….
its time to break kbr and halliburtons hold on defense. the debt will be fixed by halfing the defense budget. no reason we spend 1 trillion bucks on war crap each year…
f the cons.
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labrat
Jan. 6th, 2013 at 8:29 pm
Outplayed by the black man again. It must BURN.
Deal with it!
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Anna
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 1:22 am
The writer is awesome!!! The Prez is playing chess while the repugs are playing chess…He is a Master of the Game!!!
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Anna
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 12:27 pm
The writer is awesome!!! The Prez is playing chess while the repubs are playing checkers…He is a Master of the Game!!!
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KatzKids
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 3:35 am
The rats have backed themselves into a trap of their own making & are attempting to rip out the throats of those who might rescue them from it – the reasonable (relatively) voices in their own party.
Rabid animals with no hope of recovery must be removed permanently by our votes.
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Kevin Shinn
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 5:26 am
#ThisPresident has certainly grown into the #ExplainerInChief role too, and it’s just another thing he does well.
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Melokia
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 10:19 am
I like the way President Obama is taking charge now going into his 2nd term. He tried to be nice and coddle the Republicans in the first term. That got him no where fast. He could walk on water and the Republicans would accuse him of water pollution (even though technically they don’t think it exists). lol. The way President Obama is taking care of business, with the Republicans, is the way to deal with them. Say “no” to them (the only word they seem to understand the majority of the time). I hope the President keeps doing things this way. I think our country will be a lot better off when the President does stick to his principles and standards. I also think that the tax code should be revised. We’d save a lot of money eliminating tax credits, or incentives, for the oil and gas companies. Rather than trying to take away the every day person’s mortgage credit or higher education credits. Give “em” heck, Mr. President!
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charlie
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 11:10 am
National Debt: $16,394,000,000,000 and counting.
How many future generations do we want to force to clean up after us?
C
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1voice1vote
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 1:08 pm
I don’t recall seeing you at any of the Iraq war protests, Charlie. 40,000+ wounded Iraq war veterans to care for – war costs.
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Shiva (Moderator)
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 1:17 pm
Whatrs your point? Republicans control spending, why not go ask them? Obama is the lowest spending president since Eisenhoer
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1voice1vote
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 1:31 pm
Here you go, Charlie, in an easy to understand graph: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/05/24/who-is-the-smallest-government-spender-since-eisenhower-would-you-believe-its-barack-obama/
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charlie
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 3:06 pm
Hello, again 1V1V…
Nope, didn’t go to any protests about the wars, but that doesn’t mean in the end I supported all of Bush’s spending either. (IIRC, his approval ratings when he left office were in the toilet…so plenty of Republicans abandoned him too, and his spending was a big part of it.) But I digress…
The Forbes article is only one analysis…I can link to others that would dispute it…but I don’t see the point in getting into a pi$$ing match about which guy is the biggest spender…doesn’t matter to me at this point. I wanted our current president to come in and start cleaning up after the last one. It’s Obama’s turn at bat…and he’s only following in Bush’s footsteps. Business as usual in DC.
It’s a moral question for me at this point. It’s mathematically impossible for us to pay off our debt. So how many generations are we going to burden after we are all long gone? Is Obama going to kick the can on the spending issue again, like Pelosi is saying she would do? It’s time for us all to deal with this…if not now, when?
I can’t hang out right now…TTYL! K?
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1voice1vote
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 10:52 pm
“It’s a moral question for me at this point.”
Yeah, it was a moral question when I took a stand against GWB’s pre-emptive strike against imaginary WMDs.
“I can.. dispute …but I don’t”
Thanks for playing. You’re long on woes, Charlie, short on solutions.
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charlie
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 11:56 pm
1V1V-
Oh…you’re over here too…I just responded over on the Sanders thread.
Okay…here you go:
http://www.politifact.com/new-hampshire/statements/2012/sep/05/kelly-ayotte/did-barack-obama-accrue-more-debt-half-time-george/
Now…why should I care at this point who spent what? How does that help us get back on track?
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Carl Nordquist
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 11:52 am
If President Obama can somehow get rid of the the sleazy income hiding places of the Mittens Romney types and take away subsidies and loopholes from the oil companies,corporate farmers,other utilities, we could probably make corporate taxes about 20% if we can get rid of the hiding places! There is no reason in the world that GE etc should not pay any income taxes at all and some even get refunds! THIS HAS TO STOP!!!!!!!
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Chuck Clark
Jan. 7th, 2013 at 5:07 pm
So what is the President winning? As we approach the zone of insolvency as a nation and we prepare for further credit downgrades for running excessive deficits, it will be a pyrrhic victory indeed to preside over the economic demise of our nation, all apparently for the pleasure of besting the Republicans. Now the democrats want a balanced approach since the 2012 Tax Deal was unbalanced. Duh! So more tax revenues is all they want. How does anyone negotiate with people with that kind of logic and disingenuineness? Regardless of the debt ceiling outcome, the one thing the Republicans can control is not agreeing to any more tax increases. If Obama wants his legacy to then be racking up $4 billion more in debt, good for him. The markets will have to put a stop to the spending because the interest on the debt will soar with each credit downgrade just as it does when a company goes through the zone of insolvency towards bankruptcy. Nice victory Mr. President.
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