Having Ignored Krugman’s Law, Obama Should Heed Cheney’s Law
Both laws are essentially the same — the only difference being that one is stated as a warning, the other as a credo:
On January 5th, the Nobel prize-winning New York Times columnist Paul Krugman predicted what would come to pass [regarding the economic stimulus package] in an early statement of Krugman’s Law. For all of his goodwill, White House meetings, compromises and lofty rhetoric, the new President would – and did – get the back of the hand from Republicans:
“Look, Republicans are not going to come on board. Make 40% of the package tax cuts, they’ll demand 100%. Then they’ll start the thing about how you can’t cut taxes on people who don’t pay taxes (with only income taxes counting, of course) and demand that the plan focus on the affluent. Then they’ll demand cuts in corporate taxes. And Mitch McConnell is already saying that state and local governments should get loans, not aid – which would undermine that part of the plan, too.”
(Mercifully, President Obama did not yield on that last point. Merciful, that is, because the transfusion of federal cash to empty state coffers helped propel the dramatic improvement in second quarter GDP.)
And as I’ve previously suggested, there is also Krugman’s Corollary. Fearful of a Democratic majority for years to come, Republicans are afraid not that Barack Obama’s economic recovery and health care initiatives will fail, but that they might succeed. Or as Krugman himself put it on January 26th:
“Conservatives really, really don’t want to see a second New Deal, and they certainly don’t want to see government activism vindicated. So they are reaching for any stick they can find with which to beat proposals for increased government spending.”
[...]
Which is why Barack Obama might do well to heed the advice of his foe, former Vice President Dick Cheney. As the minority vote getter George W. Bush prepared to assume the presidency, Cheney in December 2000 said on Face the Nation:“As President-elect Bush has made very clear, he ran on a particular platform that was very carefully developed. It’s his program, it’s his agenda, and we have no intention at all of backing off of it. It’s why we got elected.”
On another occasion, Cheney put it more succinctly:
“We don’t negotiate with ourselves.”
Call it Cheney’s Lemma.
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10 Responses to “Having Ignored Krugman’s Law, Obama Should Heed Cheney’s Law”
[...] about Barack Obama as of August 16, 2009 Having Ignored Krugman’s Law, Obama Should Heed Cheney’s Law – themoderatevoice.com 08/16/2009 Both laws are essentially the same — the only difference being [...]
A succinct rendition of this article might be: Obama needs to grow a pair.
..lol…he really does though, no joke.
“Fearful of a Democratic majority for years to come, Republicans are afraid not that Barack Obama’s economic recovery and health care initiatives will fail, but that they might succeed.”
Of course. What's worse is that the Republicans will use their pyrrhic victory as a future talking point. The GOP will claim that they “saved” America from the Democrats… If they (the GOP) had not come along and let the Dems have their way America would have death panels (or whatever, depending on the policy we're talking about).
What people will remember is that the Republicans “won” and so they must have been right, or at least partially right. In the mid-term elections most Americans will not remember that the GOP had to lie through their rotten teeth to get what they wanted: a victory for them, not for Americans.
As far as the process…. I agree that Obama should be more like Cheney and push through his agenda. Obama won by a clear margin and Obama was very clear as to what he would do. Obama had the support of the Americans for his policies when he was elected. If the GOP rouses loud opposition using lies then Obama should be more like Cheney and continue to implement his policies until the GOP decides to actually join in the discussion as adults.
The goodwill of the administration towards Republicans pretty much consisted of 1 cocktail party, and when the GOP didn't faint at the sight of Obama he went into partisan mode. He has been trying to invoke fear and pressure for a quick steamrolling of a very liberal agenda since he set foot in DC.
Well the people are waking up, the majority are still moderates and independent and his poll numbers are down, the public option for healthcare was pronounced dead by both Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Democratic Senator Kent Conrad Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.
The more Obama tries to fight the inevitable the more political capital he will expend, the lower his poll numbers will go, and the more in peril the Democratic majorities will be in 2010. The GOP has to be praying he will keep pouring reasouces into this already lost battle, since those reasources would be used in fights where the President might actually win, Obama has suffered hi first major defeat now he has to decide whether to retreat or to turn it into a disaster that will cost him climate legislation and other items as well.
I wouldn't exactly call the health care debate a defeat for Obama, considering it's still ongoing. There will at least be some sort of health care reform legislation passed this year, of which wouldn't have come to fruition if the Administration kept quiet on the issue. It's the typical politics of asking for 30 when you really only want 10. As it stands, he and others are still going to end up with something around 12-15, which is still above what was considered feasible even three years ago.
The public option is dead, buried with General Custer at Little Big Horn. The Indians won, get over it.
“The public option is dead, buried with General Custer at Little Big Horn. The Indians won, get over it.”
In the words of Bill Maher last Friday…
“Why are democrats such pu$$ie$???”
Dems have all of the votes they need, but not the courage.
Dems have all of the votes they need
No they don't. You are looking at the wrong votes. What they have is an obviously pissed off electorate at ObamaCare, that despite the spin in the press is fairly broad based, and in particular HUGE in the older demographics.
It is that last point that is the key. Older voters dominate mid-term elections. The votes the Congressman and Senators are most concerned with counting are the ones that get them re-elected. If their internal polls showed this was really just a Republican astroturfed movement, they would indeed steamroll over it.
But it isn't.
And the first rule of politics is, as always, self-preservation. THAT explains the ongoing collapse of Democratic support for ObamaCare.
AR…your remarks prove my point. They don't have the courage to take the political risk.
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