January 23rd, 2009
President Obama promised to work with Congress in a bipartisan way. Today, he told the GOP to go pound sand.
President Obama listened to Republican gripes about his stimulus package during a meeting with congressional leaders Friday morning – but he also left no doubt about who’s in charge of these negotiations. “I won,” Obama noted matter-of-factly, according to sources familiar with the conversation.
The exchange arose as top House and Senate Republicans expressed concern to the president about the amount of spending in the package. They also raised red flags about a refundable tax credit that returns money to those who don’t pay income taxes, the sources said.
In practical terms, he did win; he also has the majority votes in his party to back him up, too.
Right now, the GOP is currently experiencing what I’d like to call The Queen Amidala Situation:
“There are things I cannot do.
I cannot watch my people suffer.
I cannot sit when something must be done.
I cannot judge those who are different.
There are things I cannot do.
Run. Hide. Ignore.
There are things I cannot do.
But there are certainly things I will do!”
What the GOP must do is to fight the good fight of the opposition. Party leadership in both houses of Congress must not roll over to the Democrat agenda at all costs, and they can start by voting against the “stimulus package”.
Who cares if the MSM is in the Obama tank? Get the message out loud and clear with the tools and resources of the new media. Blogs, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter are great tools to have. USE THEM. On the Sunday talk shows, on talk radio, and at Congressional press conferences, talk about the consequences of pork spending and present good counterproposals.
Demand that moderate Republicans side with fiscal conservatism and common sense. If the McCains, Grahams, and Specters want to act like Democrats, they can join the other side and consumate the tryst once and for all.
If President Obama wants to bring Chicago-style politics to Washington, then the GOP needs to grow a pair and do what must be done to fight back and remain relevant in the years to come. Stand with him when he does right, but also stand against him when does wrong — and tell the nation why he’s wrong.
Yes, he won. But may we be damned if we resign ourselves to being losers.
(h/t: Say Anything, Hot Air)
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Filed under Blogosphere, Commentary, Economics, Politics | Comments (6)
Republicans,Conservatives have an incredibly short memory when it comes to the failings of their administrations.
After eight years of an administration that avoided any hint of accountability, the need now is paramount.
The administration that President Obama has put together is if nothing else pledging accountability and asking, and at times demanding that we all be accountable too.
The GOP has little to offer but foot dragging, obfuscation, and the same old tired divisions.
Obama’s remark that “I won” should be taken as a call for the GOP to get onboard, not simply to kow-tow but to offer sound fiscal advice.
But if the plan is to do little more than filibuster the next four years then do the country a favor and get out of the way…
To summarize your comment: “My way or the highway”.
Sound fiscal advice was offered by GOP leadership to the President, and it was rejected.
It is evident that President Obama’s definition of bipartisanship is to do things his way or “get out of the way”, as you’ve put it.
The purpose of an opposition party is not to go along to get along, but to soundly oppose potentially damaging policies based on reason.
It is the opposition that keeps the Presidency and his agenda honest and holds the majority party accountable.
As for foot-dragging, obfuscation, and division, the Democrats did a lot of it during the past eight years, which helped lead to the financial mess we’re in right now.
If President Obama wants to repeat the failed, socialist policies of FDR, LBJ, Carter, and Clinton, that’s his prerogative. May the opposition work hard and do their best to change the President’s snobbery from “I won” to “I lost”.
When the GOP is in power it blames the Democrats. When the GOP is out of power it blames the Democrats.
The “sound fiscal advice” offered by the GOP is the rehash of the policies of Milton Friedman that have held sway and have enabled the present economic meltdown.
These policies have gone far to privatize everything in the US system except debt. That it has done everything to make public.
The greatest increases in the public debt in the past 50 years have been under Republican administrations, purpose being to gut the effectiveness of government…
Job well done. A very deep hole Friedman’s economics
have dug…
Getting beyond the Red State/Blue State mentality is simply not a possibility for most conservatives…
Too much kvetching over inanities.
Good lord we are only into the second week of an administration that represents a change that most Americans longed for.
Why not take the advice of John McCain in this instead of comedian Rush Limbaugh?
It’ll certainly be better for the country to give this administration it’s first 100 days, or do you have something against tradition?
As far as I know, conservatives are blaming the GOP for not being conservative. The GOP picked a go-along-to-get-along moderate named John McCain to challenge the Democrats for the presidency, and lost because he couldn’t and wouldn’t articulate conservative principles.
Since we’re on the subject of economic meltdowns, why are the Democrats so eager to rehash the policies of John Maynard Keynes? Friedman’s monetary policies weren’t the cause of the current problems; it was due to moderate republicans who rejected fiscal conservativism for a form of sugar-coated Keynesianism repackaged as “compassionate conservatism.” For all the good the Bush Administration did in protecting the country from another domestic terrorist attack since 9/11/01, it was massive government spending by Republicans and a failure to rein in financial corruption caused by Democrats that put us in the mess we’re currently in. BOTH parties are at fault.
True conservatives don’t want government intervention into banks and industry. Markets work best when government gets out of the way.
It is the socialists who want government control at every level — which is the “change” the Obamaians seek. Rather than fill the hole, the left would rather dig a far deeper hole with Keynesianism to the point that government controls everything.
While most Americans voted for President Obama’s flavor of “change” — which is nothing but radical socialism, be reminded that over 50 million Americans rejected such a path.
As for advice, Republicans tried McCain’s advice and it failed. For an “entertainer”, Limbaugh, to his credit, has proposed a serious bipartisan proposal that would go farther to bring both sides together compared to Obama exercising Rule #11 from Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”.
I’m all for giving the administration their first 100 days (a tradition Democrats broke when they viciously attacked Bush with all the hatred and vitriol they could muster); however they have already succeeded in lowering our defenses against terrorism, using taxpayer dollars to fund overseas abortions, and planning to bankrupt the very same automotive industry they claim to be rescuing.
Although you seem to be embracing socialism with open arms, over 50 million Americans, including myself, reject such tyranny. Your ilk may now run the country, but they won’t run it forever.
Telling us to lie down and accept it is not an acceptable answer.
You’re damn right we conservatives are kvetching, for we find socialism to be the worst inanity known to mankind.
We, who are conservatives first and Republicans second, will fight back — and we won’t go quietly.
Individual liberty, limited government, and a strong defense are the traditions true conservatives uphold.
You lose all credibility professing that you take comedian Rush Limbaugh seriously.
Friedman’s belief in the “self healing quality of free markets” has also hit the trash heap of history.
It’s disingenuous to draw up a false dichotomy simply to have a place to put those who seek a new way out of the present mess.
It’s also tired rhetoric to keep repeating that GW Bush kept the country safe after 9/11 without taking into account that he was in charge on 9/10.
We do not live in a safer world because of that administration.
Also Presidents aren’t elected to “keep America safe.” They are elected to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and on that count the Bush administration failed miserably.
Americans were challenged in the 60’s to work together to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
Americans are being challenged again to work together this time to rebuild what our own foolishness and fear has created and to get us out of a hole we ourselves have dug.
Get on board or get out of the way. That doesn’t mean accepting everything that comes down the pipe, but it does mean working as though success were possible.
American society for the most part is centrist. There is no denying that there are loons at both ends of the political spectrum.
What we cannot afford though is to continue with the same policies that got us here.
Enough said here. We’ll leave you with your thoughts on the matter…
I’ll check back in a couple years to see if you are still beating the same old horse.
Get on board or get out of the way.
That is not the definition of bipartisanship.
I’ll check back in a couple years to see if you are still beating the same old horse.
You do that.
There may be a sea change following the 2010 elections that will prove my argument right. However, I highly doubt you will make good on your promise if such becomes the case.