Obama Plans to Use Momentum From Health Care Reform Victory to Press On
It sounds as if President Barack Obama — fresh off a weekend when he angered Republicans by making 15 recess appointments and became a big story by making a surprise visit to Afghanistan — plans to use the “Big Mo” created by the passage of health care reform. If anyone thought Obama was going to take a breather, they are apparently mistaken.
An emboldened President Barack Obama will take a stronger hand with Congress in coming weeks, planning to push lawmakers to pass new regulations for Wall Street by September, the second anniversary of the meltdown, aides tell POLITICO.
The spring offensive, if successful, would allow Obama to claim concrete progress on all of his domestic priorities, despite a “lost year” between the passage of a stimulus package in February 2009 and the signing of health reform last week.
Some Democratic leaders hope to have financial-regulatory reform on the president’s desk even sooner — by Memorial Day, a timeline the White House considers doable.
During protracted negotiations over the health care bill, Obama was criticized for giving congressional leaders too much leeway and too little direction and for bending too easily to the timetables of Capitol Hill.
No more. Aides say that with the momentum from the most complex domestic bill to pass Congress in 45 years, Obama now will push Congress to close campaign-finance loopholes opened by the Citizens United case, adopt his overhaul of the No Child Left Behind education bill and perhaps even tackle a clean-energy bill.
“He goes into these into these negotiations, and into these legislative battles, with a stronger hand because people understand that he’s going to fight for what he believes in,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in an interview. “Congress proved to itself that it’s well within their power to do the big things that’ll bring about the type of change that they were elected to bring.”
It truly sounds like Obama has concluded that no matter what he does he’ll be criticized so he’s going to go for it — for as much of his agenda items as he realistically can. It also sounds as if he and his aides have (rightfully) concluded that Presidential clout for Presidents who have not yet completed their first term has a short shelf-life. If he really wants policies and substantative change he has better chance of getting it now on the heels of health care reform than after the mid-term elections which will almost certainly result in Democratic losses (the degree of the loss will be how it is judged).
Polls show health care reform is not yet a plus for him and the Demorats — although it is argued by them that it will be. But the plus is him getting it through Congress and putting his personal capital on the line. If it had failed Obama would be called “another Jimmy Carter” but that isn’t correct as of this writing.
The most accurate way to describe him right now:
He is a work in progress — no longer the blank slate he was during the campaign where people could assume he would govern one way or another. He is evolving and in the end that could be positive or catastrophic for him and the Democratic party.
But right now he has the wind at his back — and he’s going with the wind’s flow.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/35116.html#ixzz0jWugFXmb
10 Responses to “Obama Plans to Use Momentum From Health Care Reform Victory to Press On”
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Anyone else remember a certain other president that had recently won a very close, bi-partisan vote and uttered the phrase “I earned political capital, and I intend to use it.”?
To Obama, I say, proceed with extreme caution.
That being said, I am glad that the President has finally found his cojones, and it is probably the wisest decision to press forward with as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Political capital is fickle and fleeting. After spending a year frittering away opportunities, extending the olive branch to the republicans over and over and over again in attempt to gain bipartisanship only to be rejected *each* and *every* time, it's time for some hardball. Good luck.
“Obama now will push Congress to close campaign-finance loopholes opened by the Citizens United case, adopt his overhaul of the No Child Left Behind education bill and perhaps even tackle a clean-energy bill.”
All very good issues to tackle, which of course the Republicans will obstruct as much as possible. Though I hope I'm wrong!
Campaign-finance reform, Wall Street reform and NCLB reform are all doable. Energy reform will only be possible at a VERY scaled down level.
Good for Obama. This is no time to sit on our butts!
With the new money flowing into the system, I don't see how campaign-finance reform is possible. It will have to be something Obama does before he leaves office.
Wall Street reform does seem to becoming…an easy pitch for both sides to knock out of the park.
The previous discussion about peak oil makes me believe that oil production peaking vs cost to acquire the oil will be a self-regulating dynamic that we won't have much control over. When oil jumps to 200 a barrel, we won't need government regulation to reduce consumption.
It's a double-edged sword. Obama gains by pressing Congress (there's no “imperial Presidency” fear in sight, given that he's a Dem) but the public doesn't want a resumption of overreach.
“When oil jumps to 200 a barrel, we won't need government regulation to reduce consumption.”
You're right, Shannon. Proper pricing in this case will take care of the problem. It's far from perfect, for like everything else in real life, it's regressive, so the people flinging all the fiction at us about oil and motor vehicle fuels being “too cheap” or “artificially cheap” (these have always been lies; they have been corrected numerous times) will as usual be the first and loudest to howl once these become expensive. (They'll howl the most about the other effects, such as the price-inflationary effect given how transport and other oil-related costs will be increased throughout our economy.) Affordability can be addressed later if it becomes a problem; what price increases will also do is “horn into” the amount of taxes that the federal government might want to levy to aid its poor finances — carbon or energy or specific motor vehicle fuel or oil taxes.
“When oil jumps to 200 a barrel, we won't need government regulation to reduce consumption.”
The same is true in large part for water eventually in the southwestern USA. Same as for oil.
Proper pricing, is superior to any forced consumption (behavioral) measures. Only the most ambitious and insistent of the little totalitarians in our society would be disappointed or frustrated if pricing took care of overconsumption or laxity by the public and we rejected caps, rationing, or behavioral controls.
“plans to use the “Big Mo” created by the passage of health care reform”
Misuse of the Big Mo of the 2008 election led to a disaster (as Noonan describes it) this past year, complete with near-crackup over health care “reform” (passed only barely in the end, with legislation greatly shrunken compared to what was originally attempted).
Many of us fear more, a resumption of, misconduct by the Dems in Washington. The 2006 and 2008 elections were anti-GOP, not pro-Dem and certainly not any far left wish, much less a “mandate” [sic].
Will we see more disaster?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB200014240527487…