White House Insider Debunks “Obama’s Moving to the Center” Meme

[Joanne98]

New York Magazine has a piece that’s attracting a lot of chatter today about Team Obama’s retooling after the midterms. While the media and Village pundits keep churning out lazy “Obama’s moving to the center” stories — here’s the passage that should kill this meme once and for all – but won’t.

As Obama prepared to set off for Hawaii for the Christmas holiday, he was walking on air. “He loved December, and we loved December, because it felt like what we came here to do,” says White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer. “We ran as a postpartisan problem-solver. We were endorsed by prominent Republicans. We got here, we tried to be that guy, Republicans basically turned their backs to us, and we had a choice: We could do nothing or we could do things. We chose to do things. That had consequences, political consequences. And so gave us a chance to go back to being that sort of less partisan adult from the campaign.”

Couple noteworthy things here.

First, it sure sounds like Obama’s happiest when he’s punching hippies, because the loudest objections to the tax-cuts-for-billionaires cave were from the left.

But more significantly, Pfeiffer gives lie to “moving to the center” because he admits Obama’s always been there. You simply can’t move “from the left” as Third Way’s Jim Kessler told the New York Times if you’re starting from a non-ideological position as a pragmatic post-partisan

http://firedoglake.com/2011/01/24/white-house-insider-debunks-obama%e2%80%99s-moving-to-the-center%e2%80%9d-meme/

[leveymg]

1. In other words, he's moved further R from the Center-Right, which is where he's always wanted to be.

This is not the Obama I helped elect. It seems he's not really much of a Democrat, if that's measured by his attachment to traditional Democratic Party causes, such as protecting SS and Medicare.

A corporate lawyer as President I could live with, but not a Corporatist President.

[Sherman A1]

2. Precisely

You hit the nail on the head

[Recursion]

5. Well, specifically no

That's the opposite of what the article says. The claim is that Obama is simply sick of the idea that ideology trumps results.

[leveymg]

12. In other words, his ideology is anti-ideological. So what does that make him? Either a) a mercenar

y corporate lawyer; or b) a perfect technocrat and IMF/central bank boffin, like Summers and Geithner. Either way, he's not a traditional Democrat, and we insignificant non-elites are not being listened to, much less sympathized with.

In the technocratic calculus of the IMF, we the middle-class are disposable and the whole country is restructurable. We all know what comes next: an assault on the public sector pensions and wages; further cuts in private sector wages in the name of export competitiveness; a stripping off and sale abroad of liquidable assets; currency adjustments; higher commodities and finished goods prices, etc. - a drop in living standards for most in order to boost the corporate bottom line.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BklnDem75]

15. In FDL's case...

They made mishandling the truth a career.

[Enrique]

4. we keep having all these 'turning points'

all these moves that will supposedly "repair" Obama's relationship with business. I keep saying, "again?" It reminds me of Tom Friedman and his repeated declaration that "the next six months will be crucial"

[Recursion]

6. Ever been to a Civil War battlefield park?

I don't care if it was a cavalry skirmish in Tupelo, MS, the plaque will declare it a "decisive turning point in the war".

[AtomicKitten]

7. Pfft. FDL is reliably crap journalism. nt

[leveymg]

13. What FDL is really is reliably interesting political analysis

You don't have to agree with it all, but it's hard to ignore.

[AtomicKitten]

14. FDL makes baseless accusations, stirs the pot, then moves on when proved wrong.

rinse and repeat

[leveymg]

17. Not this time, unfortunately

[AtomicKitten]

19. well if blogger Blue Texan says so ...

[leveymg]

20. The value of an argument isn't determined by the byline or the publication.

Otherwise, there'd be no point in reading anything outside the approved roster of "experts" in Foreign Affairs and the American Journal of Political Science.

I hope that's not your criterion.

[AtomicKitten]

21. FDL's badly/unsourced rumor-mongering (e.g., "catfood commission" accusation) isn't journalism.

It's factually incorrect propaganda.

The only people that keep buying into that horseshit want to believe it.

[leveymg]

22. Creative labeling isn't "rumour-mongering." Apples and kiwifruit

It may be propaganda (all political messaging and opinion-based journalism is to some degree), but that label isn't "factually incorrect."

Not often a blog creates a label that sticks. "Catfood Commission" described it perfectly. You'll need a better example.

[AtomicKitten]

23. "Horseshit" accurately describes the so-called 'catfood commission' fear-mongering.

---> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/24/AR2011012403472.html?hpid=topnews

FDL strikes out again.

[leveymg]

24. Raising the retirement age was just one of many measures contained in the Report - we haven't heard

about Obama's position on the rest. A little early to call FDL's criticism "fear-mongering". What the report advocates is a mixed-bag of grab-backs from traditional middle class tax breaks. We don't know yet what other parts of this Obama may endorse. Here's more on the specifics we do not yet know: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1210/120110nj1.htm

Still, the basic concept of the plan's attack on the deficit remains the same. It begins with a modest increase in the overall tax burden, softened by a broad tax reform that knocks out most tax breaks and reduces tax rates at every level. It then calls for an increase in the retirement age for Social Security -- which would save tens of billions of dollars over the next decade alone -- and more changes aimed at slowing the growth in health care costs.

The commission goes further than the president's stated goal of reducing the deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product, instead whittling it down to 2.3 percent of GDP by 2015. It caps revenue and spending, meanwhile, at 21 percent of GDP each.

The plan recommends the immediate implementation of fundamental tax reform and the elimination of nearly all of the 150-plus tax expenditures, with a few exceptions: the earned income tax credit, the child credit, mortgage interest deductions (but only for primary homes), employer-provided health insurance credits, retirement savings and pensions credits, and charitable giving deductions. Itemized deductions would be eliminated, and capital gains and dividends would be taxed at ordinary rates.

The plan cuts tax rates across the board, reducing the top rate to between 23 percent and 29 percent. Originally, the co-chairs recommended establishing three rates -- 15 percent, 25 percent, and 35 percent. Their proposal to implement a 15 cent-per-gallon fuel tax hike within the next five years remains unchanged.

The corporate tax rate would be streamlined, with the rate necessarily falling between 23 percent and 29 percent, down from the current top rate of 35 percent. The plan suggests a 28 percent rate in its illustrative proposal, a 2-point increase over the chairmen's mark proposal. Meanwhile, a territorial system would be established for foreign-owned companies with U.S. subsidiaries, allowing them to keep foreign profits. All tax deductions and expenditures for businesses would be eliminated.

The plan calls for discretionary spending to return to pre-crisis 2008 levels in 2013, while freezing spending in 2012 at 2011 levels and constraining spending growth to half the rate of inflation through 2020. It would cut non-war defense spending at the same rate as non-defense spending, while war spending would fall under the responsibility of the president, who would be required to propose annual limits.

The plan adds details on how to reduce federal health care spending, which were noticeably absent in the initial Simpson-Bowles proposal. They include changing how Medicare pays doctors, scrapping a long-term care insurance plan created by President Obama's signature health care bill, overhauling medical malpractice litigation, and chipping away at Medicare and Medicaid costs through a variety of measures.

But the final proposal still lacks specifics on how to control upward-spiraling health care cost increases throughout the economy - the biggest driver of long-term budget deficits, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The commission's boldest attempt to control those costs is by eliminating the tax exemption for employer-paid health benefits, which many economists say would help reduce costs by forcing individuals to shoulder more of the burden of their health-care choices.

The retirement age would be raised to 69 from 65 in order to rein in Social Security spending to ensure the program's solvency.

More generally, the plan proposes budget process reforms to encourage accountability in the budgeting process.

[AtomicKitten]

26. On MSNBC, Hamsher insisted Pres O was going to propose drastic cuts to SS and Medicare in the SOTU.

She was wrong, her fear-mongering with no basis in fact.

This is her M.O.:

[Cali_Democrat]

8. So Obama is moving to the right because that's where he always wanted to be?

Although I don't want to believe this, the evidence recently suggests that this is the case. A lot of progressives had high hopes for Obama and have really been let down.

Progressives are angry because they worked hard for Obama and donated their hard-earned money to his campaign. The fact progressive efforts went to further a corporatist agenda is really going to piss a lot of people off. People knocked on doors and donated money and they're angry.

[2Design]

9. he started in the center and now is in the right with the republicans

[Vinca]

11. Exactly. The real question is how right he will go.

[SpartanDem]

16. Republican use the EPA enforce greenouse gas regulations

or overturn Bush rules protection wilderness or stop largest mountaintop mining operation? On the whole it was a very good month Democratic causes it btother to look at thing objectively

[golddigger]

10. But, but, he's so dreamy.

[ProSense]

18. And

he's pretty impressive for a "Republican."

[HeroTwins]

25. FireDogLake is irrelevant