Oh Boy... 'The White House’s Two Priorities' - Ezra Klein/WaPo

[WillyT]

The White House’s two priorities
By Ezra Klein
Posted at 11:40 AM ET, 09/07/2011

The White House believes two things about the next 14 months in American politics: With more than a year to go before the election, they can’t simply stop governing and start campaigning. That means that whatever they propose needs to attract bipartisan support. But with barely more than a year to go before the election, they can’t pretend the campaign doesn’t matter. That means whatever they propose needs to help win over the independents who will decide the election.

As the administration sees it, both projects point toward the same sort of plan: a package of job-creation ideas that are thoroughly bipartisan and clearly popular, and a package of deficit-reducing offsets that show that they are willing to make hard choices, and even anger members of their own party, in the name of fiscal discipline.

The bulk of what will be in President Obama’s jobs speech Thursday will not be new stimulus. The big-ticket items will be a slightly expanded version of the payroll tax cut and an extension of unemployment insurance. Together, these two pieces cost about $200 billion a year, which accounts for most of the $300-$400 billion in jobs spending that the White House is set to announce. But since they are already in effect, extending them will not, from an economic point of view, add much new demand into the economy. It will simply prevent demand from being sucked out. The rest of the proposal is likely to be an infrastructure plan — I would expect the price tag here to be in the $50-$100 billion range for 2012 — and more state and local aid. There will also be a call for Fannie and Freddie to extend refinancing help to more underwater homeowners.

Getting less attention in the media is the follow-up speech the White House is planning, which will lay out a specific deficit-reduction agenda that not only meets the $1.5 trillion goal of the “supercommittee,” but exceeds it and pays for the new jobs spending. These proposals will look quite similar to the grand bargain the White House offered Speaker John Boehner, and liberal groups are grimly preparing for the administration to call for raising the Medicare eligibility age.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-white-houses-two-priorities/2011/08/25/gIQAjLqW9J_blog.html

:shrug:

[villager]

1. "I can keep alienating my base, because there will be so many 'independents' ready to vote for me!"

yeah - that's the ticket...

[dkf]

14. What do you want him to propose that you think is passable?

Or do you only want him proposing things that will die?

[WillyT]

16. Sort Of...

Traditionally, he would propose a program that would get the people's attention and approval, something BIG, something they are desperate for, and if it can't get passed because of the Republicans in Congress, you set your entire campaign running against a "Do-Nothing Congress" and a Republican Party that only cares about the care and feeding of the top 2% of Americans.

It's been done successfully before.

:shrug:

[dkf]

17. Yeah so nobody expects him to do anything that helps. They just want him to pontificate.

[WillyT]

18. The Feeble Shit That Will Be "Allowed" To Pass Won't Be Nearly Enough To Help

and it won't be enough to help Obama, either.

You go big and bold, and if they block it, you blame it on the Republicans... the Democratic Party, or at least Harry Truman CREATED THE PLAYBOOK !!!

The 80th Congress was nicknamed the "Do Nothing Congress" by President Harry Truman. The Congress opposed many of the bills passed during the Franklin Roosevelt administration. They also opposed most of Truman's Fair Deal bills. Yet they passed many pro-business bills. During the 1948 election Truman campaigned as much against the "Do Nothing Congress" as against his formal opponent, Thomas Dewey.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80th_United_States_Congress



WHY... do we insist on re-inventing the wheel???

:shrug:

[dkf]

27. It depends if the public thinks the big and bold project will work too.

If they are skeptical then Obama won't make his case either way

[ThomCat]

31. Can you imagine the public Not thinking that a jobs program

would work if it had funding and government support.

The big problem is always that the programs are too small, and geared towards helping business, not people.

For once, if programs were really geared towards helping people, and were BIG, people would certainly support them.

That's exactly what people have been waiting for.
That's exactly what people have been begging for.

How hard is it to understand that people need a big jobs program that provides jobs opportunities for everyone?

Not just a couple of incentives for companies to not fire people, and call that a jobs bill. Not a couple of incentives for companies to hire a low number of temps and part timers, and call that a huge success. We need a bill that creates real job opportunities, full time job opportunities for people in a lot of different fields, for people of all ages and background, everywhere.

Of course, having to balance the cost by cutting services is going to be brutal. Having to balance the cost of these jobs by slashing heating assistance, food stamps, assistance to states, and other services that help so many poor people is going to giving with one hand while taking away with the other.

That's counter-productive at the very least, which is the whole point of it, I'm sure. The republicans wanted to shoot any efforts in the metaphorical foot before they could even begin. :(

[Bandit]

32. Exactly what do you want to pass anyway?

Do you want a Republican agenda to pass, because that is all that can pass. There is no way in Hell Republicans are going to go along with anything other than complete surrender to their agenda..

[Vincardog]

2. BO's advisers are going to compromise him out of the White House; Then they will blame Liberals

[TheKentuckian]

3. Approaching nuclear levels of stupid.

[Bluebear]

7. +

[xiamiam]

10. it is insane to not even address that much of the base is gone..never to return

yet the campaign is going after independents?..i don't get it..

[BzaDem]

15. Perhaps that is because your assumption is false? Obama has higher Democratic support than any

President since JFK.

[xiamiam]

25. we live in parallel universes..i think you've got the same disconnect as to what is really happening

as the presidents advisors..

[BzaDem]

28. My universe is based on facts and polls, many of which have been quite accurate in the past. n/t

[librechik]

21. Obama needs new campaign advisors NOW

might i suggest Allen Grayson as an inspiration? never happen.

[librechik]

20. nuke you lar

[Enrique]

4. and what are the consequences of this approach?

will it create jobs? Of course not. I'm sorry for being pessimistic, but if I thought GOP policies created jobs I'd be a Republican. But I don't, and I'm not. I don't see why I would start believing in GOP policies just because Obama adopts them. If they do create jobs, I will become a Republican. The Barack Obama presidency will have proven to everyone that the GOP is right about everything. I don't expect this to happen, forgive me for my pessimism.

Will it make rich people richer? Yes, it will. What is it, $80 billion his smog compromise for example will save the polluters? How nice for them.

Is it a coincidence that Obama's strategy will help the rich and not help working people? Who knows? Does it matter if Obama "wants" this or not, as if we could ever know this? Not really, imo.

Does it matter if the Ezra Kleins of the world constantly explain to us why Obama is doing these things? Not really.

[boston bean]

5. stupid, craven politics. nt

[Raine]

6. More of the same, the same that has given him his lowest poll numbers

ever ... yeah that's the ticket. :eyes:

[ClarkUSA]

8. How does Ezra Klein know what the WH "believes"? He is a reporter for the Washington Post...

... and he names no sources for his claims, which seem to be more an exercise in getting hits to up his blog traffic.

[JoePhilly]

29. +1

[Bluenorthwest]

9. So repeat that which is ruing his Presidency and the nation?

More of the bipartisanship that always brings such grand results?

[xiamiam]

13. except that many of us have no seat at the table

i'm a straight dem voter for 4 decades..i'm not gonna vote for obama..other than the campaign donation letter i got from michelle o yesterday, it's as if folks like me don't exist or have any legitimate ideas re the direction of this country..

[bvar22]

11. Oh Boy.

More warmed over Republican Conservatism.


Thats my problem with Centrists.
They agree with Republicans too often.
When Mainstream-Center FDR/LBJ Democrats are labeled "The Far left",
WHO is really doing the labeling?



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.

Solidarity!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[librechik]

22. may i huddle in the shelter of your post?

been a bad day

[Owlet]

12. If that is all there is to it..

..then it hardly seems worth a prime-time speech. As Klein points out, these are extensions of ongoing attempts to keep the economy from sinking further, not the 'bold new ideas' that some have been predicting. I hope Klein is just speculating on his own, with no special inside knowledge of WH plans. I guess we'll know in 24 hours or so.

[librechik]

19. because not taking a stand in the name of bipartisanship has worked so well.

fuck i give up

[ProgressIn2008]

23. It's a billion dollar industry buying the office of the president these days. nt

[Tatiana]

24. Embarrassing that a supposed Dem is coming to the table with a (moderate) REPUBLICAN proposal. n/t

[whosinpower]

26. Do you know WHY they can anger their own party

in the name of fiscal discipline???????????

Watch the GOP debate.
Clearly - there are no serious contenders.....none.

[xchrom]

30. Recommend