Daily Archives: October 24, 2012

Houston Politics

The ABCs of the GOP: P is for…

Leave a comment

Partisanship… Nothing “Bi” About it

Election season is tough. Tough on the candidates, of course, but it’s also tough on everyone else. We have to deal with the barrage of political advertising, get into all sorts of vigorous discussions with our friends, watch nail-biter debates, and delve into all of the particular inner workings of government that most of us would just rather do without. But the reason that we must endure through November 6th is because this election year is just too important. Since 2010, the top priority of the Republican Party has not been to improve the lives of their constituents, but to deny President Obama a second term. No seriously!! You don’t have to take my word for it… just listen to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell…

This is the political climate which defined President Obama’s first term in office. On one side you have the Democrats, whom behaved mostly as politicians are expected to. They didn’t always vote as a block on the issues… Each Legislator brought their own personal opinions and constituent needs to influence the way they voted. And of course, Democrats were plagued by the usual scandals, which this time befell outspoken Congressman Anthony Wiener and former Governor-turned-inmate Rod Blagoyevich. But when it came to big things, Democrats were able to get some of them done, despite massive GOP roadblocks… Healthcare reform, the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, unprecedented consumer protections against bank and credit card fraud, and significant reforms for students to make paying their student loans back less of a life-long burden.

But all along the way, Democrats had to fight tooth-and-nail against an unplanned adversary… Republican partisanship. In 2009 and 2010, the Senate GOP launched an attack never seen before in all of American history. They filibustered EVERYTHING… even many bills that members once themselves sponsored and supported. The purpose of these filibusters weren’t because they believed the legislation was bad, but because any legislative accomplishment would be viewed as a positive for Barack Obama and the Democrats. So on legislation like the Dream Act… Something that has long held bi-partisan champions in the Senate, was killed as they sold their souls to the political devil to prevent any notion of American progress. They put party over country in the ultimate display of partisanship.

Finally in 2010, Republicans were able to reap some benefit from making the Democrats look bad. They won historic victories in the House, and now have a say in the legislative agenda. This historic tide came from a skilled combination of economic frustration, Anti-Democratic messaging and partisan-fueled hostility. But when Speaker John Boehner and his Republican colleagues took control of the House, the gridlock didn’t end… not by a long-shot. They wasted the time and money of the American people on useless repetitive votes, and crafted legislation that they knew would not pass the Senate. It was then that the inner workings of the GOP were exposed, and that all of the partisan firewalls were taking an immeasurable toll.

Well immeasurable in one sense, but others see the price they are paying quite clearly. President Obama even believes, as revealed in a recent Des Moines Register interview, that the careful coalition that the GOP created to win the 2010 election is the same one that could cause them to lose in 2012. The party has gone so far to alienate Hispanic voters, that it may very well help the President get re-elected. And if that happens, the coalition will surely fracture. Why? Because they realize that there is nowhere else they can go without getting serious about Immigration reform, and appealing to a more diverse America. So in a way, the perils of Republican partisanship have produced a silver lining for Democrats. They improve the President’s chances for re-election, help Democrats to pick-up House seats, and almost guarantee an important legislative victory for the President in his first year back.

But one important question remains… if Mitt Romney is elected, what becomes of the GOP? Would it still fracture and regroup for 2016? In short, the answer is no. Whether they’d like to admit it or not, the GOP of 2012 is in desperate need of some changes. As Obama said, they can’t continue down a path to total exclusion. A Romney victory means that many Republicans will have to stick to their guns. They’d be forced to keep up the infighting between the Tea Party and the establishment wings of the party. They’d be forced to answer for the massive, outlandish promises Mitt Romney has made about his “magical” tax plan, self-deportation and repealing many of the GLBT rights advances that we’ve lived with over the last four years. They’d be forced to support Mitt Romney’s candidacy during 2016 and prevent a whole slew of much more “exciting” new candidates from running until 2020. They’d face the possibility of Mitt Romney facing off aganst Hillary Clinton, whom the Democrats would surely flock to if she chooses to run. Essentially, if Mitt Romney wins, GOP lawmakers are going to be asked to do the impossible. See that’s the unintended consequence of partisanship… it’s a short-term fix, but in the long-run it leads to more destruction. As crazy as it sounds, the best thing for those that truly care about the Republican Party’s future may be to re-elect President Obama. Of course, I don’t think Democrats would complain either!!

In two short weeks, we’ll have many of these answers. But for now, we have to wait and see just how thick the GOP’s partisan firewall is.

Houston Politics

Big Plans: Obama gets specific on 2nd term

Leave a comment

Signaling another bold move, the Obama administration has decided to let the cat out of the bag. The President gave a very detailed (and mostly off-the-record) interview to the Des Moines Register. Reporters Rick Green and Laura Hollingsworth wasted no time, and asked some very interesting questions. The President actually started out the interview by giving an outline of his agenda for a second term. If you haven’t noticed since the final debate, Mr. Obama is suddenly more than happy to talk about details.

But one of the most fascinating points made by the President came from the question on Washington’s partisan gridlock, and how it could ever be solved. Obama offerred a targeted response, saying that he believes the GOP will be more willing to work during his second term…

Q: Great. Mr. President, we know that John Boehner and the House Republicans have not been easy to work with, and certainly you’ve had some obstacles in the Senate, even though it’s been controlled by the Democrats. At the time, whenever — we talked a lot about, in 2008, hope and change. I’m curious about what you see your role is in terms of changing the tone and the perception that Washington is broken. But particularly, sir, if you were granted a second term, how do you implode this partisan gridlock that has gripped Washington and Congress and basically our entire political structure right now?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, Rick, let me answer you short term and long term. In the short term, the good news is that there’s going to be a forcing mechanism to deal with what is the central ideological argument in Washington right now, and that is: How much government do we have and how do we pay for it?

So when you combine the Bush tax cuts expiring, the sequester in place, the commitment of both myself and my opponent — at least Governor Romney claims that he wants to reduce the deficit — but we’re going to be in a position where I believe in the first six months we are going to solve that big piece of business. (the fiscal cliff)

It will probably be messy. It won’t be pleasant. But I am absolutely confident that we can get what is the equivalent of the grand bargain that essentially I’ve been offering to the Republicans for a very long time, which is $2.50 worth of cuts for every dollar in spending, and work to reduce the costs of our health care programs.

And we can easily meet — “easily” is the wrong word — we can credibly meet the target that the Bowles-Simpson Commission established of $4 trillion in deficit reduction, and even more in the out-years, and we can stabilize our deficit-to-GDP ratio in a way that is really going to be a good foundation for long-term growth. Now, once we get that done, that takes a huge piece of business off the table.

The second thing I’m confident we’ll get done next year is immigration reform. And since this is off the record, I will just be very blunt. Should I win a second term, a big reason I will win a second term is because the Republican nominee and the Republican Party have so alienated the fastest-growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community. And this is a relatively new phenomenon. George Bush and Karl Rove were smart enough to understand the changing nature of America. And so I am fairly confident that they’re going to have a deep interest in getting that done. And I want to get it done because it’s the right thing to do and I’ve cared about this ever since I ran back in 2008.

So assume that you get those two things done in the first year, and we’re implementing Wall Street reform, Obamacare turns out not to have been the scary monster that the other side has painted. Now we’re in a position where we can start on some things that really historically have not been ideological. We can start looking at a serious corporate tax reform agenda that’s revenue-neutral but lowers rates and broadens the base — something that both Republicans and Democrats have expressed an interest in.

I’ve expressed a deep desire and taken executive action to weed out regulations that aren’t contributing to the health and public safety of our people. And we’ve made a commitment to look back and see if there are regulations out there that aren’t working, then let’s get rid of them and see if we can clear out some of the underbrush on that. Again, that’s something that should be non-ideological.

My hope is, is that there’s a recognition that now is a great time to make infrastructure improvements all across the country. And we can pull up some of the money that we know we’re going to be spending over the next decade to put people back to work right now at a time when contractors are dying for work and interest rates are really low.

And, again, that’s something that even John Boehner — John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, they’ve got a bridge linking Cincinnati and Kentucky, and the bridge is so broken down that folks are having to drive an hour and a half of extra commuting just to get across the Ohio River. There’s no reason why we can’t work on things like that and put people back to work.

(Excerpted from DesMoinesRegister.com)

So there we have it… President Obama’s detailed explanation for not only what he hopes to accomplish in a second term, but also how he’s going to get there with a very devisive Congressional environment. We also learned, as he said during the third debate, that he has no intention of allowing sequestration to occur, and that immigration reform is a top priority he looks to accomplish during his very first year. The Obama campaign is coming under fire because they had originally requested this interview be off the record. Why? Because some on the campaign probably worried that it was too candid to say before the Election Day results come in. But for some voters, this is exactly the type of information they need to hear. And they are very glad for this revealing interview.

In the immortal words of Sir Francis Bacon, “Knowledge is Power”. Glad to see that Mr. Obama agrees.