Thursday, September 27, 2012

You Can Look It Up

Why doesn't someone just say "No, he didn't?"

The noise is "The President had complete control of the Congress in his first two years and had everything his way."

No.  No he didn't.

The Senate majority of Democrats was not veto-proof.   The balance was in the hands of the Blue Dog Democrats, the so called "moderates," who voted with the Republicans.  They watered down everything he wanted to do or kept him from doing it.

You can look it up.

For example, the so called stimulus.  In order to get Blue Dog support the President was forced to make half of the amount tax cuts--the Republican notion of stimulating the economy.  That's right, tax cuts--half of they money in the stimulus was not really stimulus, at all.  Tax cuts are not stimulative enough of the economy to be considered anything but a joke.

You can look it up.

The stimulus is also relevant to confronting some other noise: "The President didn't try to govern in a bi-partisan way."

Why doesn't someone say, "Yes, he did?"

First, as I say, see note on stimulus, above.

Second, Obama put a number of Republican measures on the table and when he did the Republicans and their Blue Dog allies no longer supported them.  This happened so many times that I don't have time to complete the list.  Let the Dream Act stand for all of them.

Third, he encouraged alteration of his own and other proposals from Democrats to incorporate Republican positions (health care, for example) and still the R's and the Blue Dogs who originally  thought them up and once touted them refused to support them, anymore.

You can look that up, too.

When these claims get made the media people don't question them, even when D surrogates and office holders hear them made and don't challenge them.

Does no one but me remember all this?

If anyone else does, why doesn't someone at least try to straighten these people out?


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