On Debt Deal, Republicans Always Had the Upper Hand

Just before the July 4th weekend the President held a press conference in which he for the first time spoke out against the obduracy of the Republican Congressional leadership, saying "They need to do their job".

Until a question late in the press session finally roused him, the president's silence had allowed Republican leaders in Congress to gain the upper hand.

When Eric Cantor walked out of the negotiations with Vice President Biden, he could say, “I don’t believe now is the time to raise taxes in light of our current economic situation”, with no rebuttal from the White House. John Boehner would say much the same: "The American people know tax hikes destroy jobs". Obama has left such sophistry unchallenged all these weeks when he should have been telling the public that Republican insistence on nothing but spending cuts is what is guaranteed to cost jobs.

When Senators McConnell and Kyl can in a joint statement say, “President Obama needs to decide between his goal of higher taxes, or a bipartisan plan to address our deficit. He can’t have both", no rebuttal from the White House that leaving the impression with the American public that the President takes his marching orders from these two. (One could read this muddled statement as saying they'd allow the President to choose higher taxes, but that was decidedly not what they meant).

McConnell again: “It’s time Washington take the hit, not the taxpayers”, after meeting with the president, knowing full well that the tax changes the president argues for are elimination of subsidies to oil and gas companies, the top five of which earned $35 billion in profits in the first quarter; elimination of corporate loopholes; and the application of standard tax rates to hedge fund managers. These are not taxes for the general "taxpayer". The revenue increases he seeks are paltry — $130 billion versus the $2 trillion in spending cuts across ten years.

In the few weeks remaining, Mr. Obama needs to make this case in television interviews and to reporters repeatedly. If no agreement is reach on time, if social security payments are suspended, if veterans do not receive their disability checks, if student loan holdups prevent their return to college in the fall, if food inspectors stop doing their job, the president must be able to lay the blame at the feet of an unyielding Republican leadership or forfeit the votes of all affected come November 2012.

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