I'm hoping the initial reports about the components of a Debt Ceiling deal are incorrect because they would mean an almost total capitulation by President Obama and Harry Reid. Without even knowing if that's what's in the Debt Ceiling Deal its pretty clear the President has shifted a surprising distance to the right, turning his back on some of the Democratic Party's base's top priorities in the process.
Rightward Tilt Leaves Obama With Party Rift
By JACKIE CALMES
Published: July 30, 2011
WASHINGTON — However the debt limit showdown ends, one thing is clear: under pressure from Congressional Republicans, President Obama has moved rightward on budget policy, deepening a rift within his party heading into the next election.
Mr. Obama, seeking to appeal to the broad swath of independent voters, has adopted the Republicans’ language and in some cases their policies, while signaling a willingness to break with liberals on some issues.
He proposed fewer cuts in military spending and more in health care than a bipartisan Senate group that includes one of the chamber’s most conservative Republicans.
But by this month, in ultimately unsuccessful talks with Speaker John A. Boehner, Mr. Obama tentatively agreed to a plan that was farther to the right than that of the majority of the fiscal commission and a bipartisan group of senators, the so-called Gang of Six. It also included a slow rise in the Medicare eligibility age to 67 from 65, and, after 2015, a change in the formula for Social Security cost-of-living adjustments long sought by economists.
If Mr. Obama agrees to massive spending cuts with no revenue increases it will amount to an almost complete capitulation the the Radical Republicans. Agreeing to such a plan would also agree to spending cuts that will further deflate a weak economy, at a very vulnerable time.
Obama set the pattern of complete capitulation to the Republican bullies by caving to the Republicans' bluff on tax cuts for the rich. As we all know giving a bullies anything they want only encourages them to demand more next time.
I was one of Obama's earliest and most vocal supporters on this site starting with a diary in February of 2007 touting Obama as a candidate before he had announced his candidacy. There will be no primary challenge against this president. The Republican alternative is scary enough to get Progressives to the polls just to keep those radicals out of office, even if there is little enthusiasm for a president who has let us down on so many issues important to us.