Exciting Stuff

[Bravus]

Seems to me it's harder to claim 'the parties are just the same as each other' in the light of this: http://www.salon.com/2012/01/25/obamas_99_percent_speech/

[Dr. Shane]

Obama is very combative which I believe is one of the biggest reasons he has been so ineffective. He plays the blame-the-Republicans game but most people are not so forgetful to remember that for his first two years as President he couldn't get people that agree with him to agree with him. His combativeness doesn't serve him well. I think it is probably why he has been such a failure.

[Dr. Shane]

Obama's combative tactics. Send naked chief of staff to go after congressman while taking a shower.

Massa Details Naked Shower Fight With 'S.../#ixzz1kTMWVzMr

Quote:

It sounds like the kind of bad dream that only congressmen have -- White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, stark naked, approaches you in the locker room to give you a piece of his mind for not supporting the president's budget.

Only this actually happened, according to Rep. Eric Massa, the embattled New York Democrat who resigned Monday and used his last hours in office to settle some scores with party leaders.

[Tom Wetmore]

Obama is very combative which I believe is one of the biggest reasons he has been so ineffective. He plays the blame-the-Republicans game but most people are not so forgetful to remember that for his first two years as President he couldn't get people that agree with him to agree with him. His combativeness doesn't serve him well. I think it is probably why he has been such a failure.

Come on, we are all adults here. Everyone knows that Congress is the biggest impediment to getting things done in this country. They have been acting like children and deserve a good old fashion scolding. Let's not forget that their approval rating is so low that this scolding plays very well to all except the thin line of hardcore obstructionistic conservatives that are the cause of all of the inaction and ineffectiveness of government. Really, that contingency would perceive his tone as combative and see that as the reason nothing got done. What an utterly childish excuse! "Johnny didn't say please... Mommy make him be nice."

[Dr. Shane]

Everyone knows that Congress is the biggest impediment to getting things done in this country.

[Bravus]

To me the issue is not so much combativeness as it is standing up for a clear principle and letting the nation know about your vision for leading. As I said in the opening post, this is (finally) a clear declaration of policy difference from the Republicans. Obama is standing for an equitable nation in which *everyone* pays their fair and reasonable share. He is correct in saying that a regressive tax system in which the wealthy pay half as much tax (proportionally) as the middle class is not a fair system.

[Dr. Shane]

standing up for a clear principle

[Bravus]

But the coalitions have to be built for a purpose. You need a vision of what you're trying to achieve. That's what I mean by 'clear principle': not Bachmann-like utter inflexibility, just knowing where you're driving to.

The fact that the Tea Party members of Congress are displaying that utter inflexibility is one of the reasons it's been difficult for Obama to achieve all he wanted to achieve.

On taxes, there are lots of things that need to be done, and I agree that clarity is important. But the general principle that all people should pay a fair amount of tax is part of it, since tax is the source of government revenue. As I said in another thread, you don't slash deficits by slashing your income. Government needs to raise its income as well as cutting its spending, and looking at taxes *must* be part of that.

[Dr. Shane]

Obama had problems working with Congress before the TEA Party got anyone elected. Obama couldn't get people to agree with him that already agreed with him.

[phkrause]

I don't see it that way at all. Those supposed Democrats that agreed with him, never agreed with him from the start. They didn't like him before the elections and they certainly didn't like him after the election. They didn't want him to get the nomination in the first place, they wanted Hilary to win. The biggest difference that I've seen with the two parties is, the Democrats don't stick together when voting on issues, as the republicans, they stick together like a pack of rats.

[Dr. Shane]

Don't read too much into that. My point is that as the leader of the Democratic Party, he couldn't get Democrats to follow him. So one can hardly blame his failure on TEA Party Republicans not being flexible.

A good politician knows that everyone is flexible. If Obama had offered them the right stuff in the right way, he could have gotten everything he wanted. He simply lacked leadership. He failed to lead his own party for two years and has failed to work with Republicans this past year.

Interestingly if we go over the Congressional approval ratings for this past year, some of the highest approval ratings were when Congress was fighting the most with Obama.

[phkrause]

I agree, and that also comes with those you surround yourself with.

[Dr. Shane]

Of course the best way to raise tax revenue is to increase the number of people paying taxes. Our unemployment lines are full of people waiting to go to work and pay taxes. Potential immigrants around the world are waiting to come here, work and pay taxes.

The best way we can solve our deficit problem is to grow the economy while reducing the increase in spending as much as possible.

[phkrause]

while reducing the increase in spending as much as possible.

And which party is actually going to do that?

[Dr. Shane]

I would say the Republican Party is most likely to reduce growth simply because of their ideology. GW Bush actually had the deficit decreasing his last few years until the financial meltdown occurred.

Social Security spending is going to continue to grow due to the Baby Boomers retiring. We can eliminate Medicare Part D and have some savings there. We can also cut our Armed Forces dramatically by transitioning to a Reserve component basis system which would have most of the military in the Reserves and yet war ready in case they are called. We should bring home a lot of the troops we have abroad in countries like the Philippians and Germany.