"Let’s count the ways in which this fails to make any sense whatsoever."

[babylonsister]

Posted with permission.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/the_right_blames_obama_for_gop033621.php

November 21, 2011 8:35 AM
The right blames Obama for GOP’s debt failure

By Steve Benen



As the super-committee implodes, the rush is on to assign blame. At this point, many Republicans and media figures want to point the finger at President Obama.

Indeed, the right seems quite invested in this line of attack, as if a memo went out to Republicans and allied pundits, encouraging them to all say the same thing at the same time. Judd Gregg and Robert Samuelson make the same lazy argument in print, and both pretend to have no knowledge of the massive debt-reduction plans Obama offered the GOP, which the conservative party rejected.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) even sketched out a crude conspiracy theory, telling ABC yesterday that the White House deliberately ensured the super-committee’s failure so the president could run against a “do-nothing Congress.”

Then there was Mitt Romney.

With the so-called supercommittee at an impasse ahead of Wednesday’s deadline, Mr. Romney blamed the president for the apparent failure of the bipartisan panel…. “He hasn’t had any role,” Mr. Romney told roughly 200 supporters outside the city hall building in Nashua…. “He’s done nothing.”

Let’s count the ways in which this fails to make any sense whatsoever.

First, President Obama offered Republicans multiple debt-reduction plans, which called for concessions from both sides. GOP lawmakers rejected every offer. That’s not an example of the president “doing nothing”; it’s an example of the opposite.

Second, Obama can’t force Republicans to negotiate in good faith and he can’t compel the GOP to accept revenues the party refused to even consider. It’s not as if Republicans on the super-committee would somehow become more responsible because the president asked them to stop acting like children. Indeed, he’s asked that before, and it’s never worked.

And third, Obama kept his distance and allowed members of the debt panel to work on a deal on their own because Republicans asked the president to stay away.

{A}nother committee member, Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, said on “Meet the Press” that President Obama and White House budget officials “were asked to be hands off.”

“The Republicans said, ‘Don’t let Obama come into this, because if he does, it will make it political,’ ” Mr. Kerry said, adding, “They’ve been intimately involved, but carefully so that they didn’t politicize it. I think they did the right thing.”

Republicans can’t urge Obama to keep his distance, and then blame him when he keeps his distance.

Members of this committee were given a task: strike a deal. Democrats were willing to meet Republicans more than half way; Republicans weren’t willing to compromise. It’s only natural to wonder who’s to blame when there’s a breakdown like this, but holding the White House responsible is deeply foolish.

[rfranklin]

1. Yet, too many Americans can't see this simple truth...

Just yesterday I was told by a middle-aged suburbanite that it was equally the fault of the Democrats and the Republicans because neither would compromise. I wanted to tell him he was an ignorant fool but I did not want to disrupt the volunteer effort that we were working on together. But I was pretty much dumbfounded that an intelligent person could put forth such nonsense. (Though it shows how effective the Republican spin machine is.)

[global1]

2. Grover Norquist....

If you want to blame someone. All Americans should be told his name and how the Repugs took an oath to follow him versus the US Constitution they swore to uphold when they were elected. Is anybody really surprised the Supercommittee failed?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. Trying to pin the blame on Obama for the Super Committee's failure is ridiculous

Even more so when you consider that the Pubs asked him to back off of it. Anyway, President Obama isn't a leader of Congress- John Boehner, Eric Canter, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell are- and President Obama shouldn't have to hold Congress' hands and help them do whatever they're apparently too stupid, incompetent, and/or corrupt to do in the first place. According to the debt ceiling passed in August, responsibility for coming up with the necessary savings was supposed to be the so-called Super Committee's" responsibility. It did not specify AFAIK a direct role for the President (though, of course, as the article points out, President Obama did offer some proposals that were rejected). Obama is essentially damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. He can't do anything right no matter what he does (or doesn't do) according to the Pubs. Between the teabagger majority in the House and the Republican filibuster chokehold in the Senate, President Obama doesn't have to so much as lift a finger to make this Congress a "do-nothing" Congress. This has been one of the most useless Congresses in recent history IMHO and I hope the Republicans pay a heavy political price for their rampant obstructionism, laziness, and refusal to govern responsibly and serve the public's business. :puke:

[barbtries]

4. one statement here is clearly wrong.

"Republicans can’t urge Obama to keep his distance, and then blame him when he keeps his distance."

of course they can! get real. if republicans are nothing else at all, they are hypocrites.