Posted on 09/15/2013 10:41:01 AM PDT by jazusamo
President Obama hopes to fill his 2012 campaign scorecard this fall by focusing on executive actions and smaller-bore legislative items.
Progress on the president’s big-ticket agenda of gun control, immigration reform and the budget has been stymied by a gridlocked Congress, but the White House thinks Obama can still score several political victories.
“We’ll continue to work with folks on both sides of the aisle to find common ground around common-sense ideas that’ll help middle class families. In the meantime, the president has also taken a series of executive actions,” said White House spokesman Bobby Whithorne. “These steps aren’t a substitute for the bold action from Congress to create jobs and grow the economy, but they’ll make a difference.”
Obama’s strategy is similar to the one pursued by Bill Clinton in his second term, when he used small, widely popular legislative proposals to build up momentum.
The White House points to the president's recent call on the FCC to impose a fee on cellular phone customers that would finance connecting 99 percent of school classrooms to high-speed Internet as one example of how the president has used executive authority to forward his agenda.
In the coming week, the president can again flex his muscles with the formal introduction of new stringent rules on the construction of new coal-fired power plants. The regulations will implement stricter pollution limits and require the installation of carbon control technology, allowing Obama to deliver on a campaign promise to environmental supporters.
“It was a major part of his inaugural… [and] it can be accomplished through the regulatory process,” said Democratic strategist Chris Lehane. “And it would be a significant legacy agenda accomplishment in the second term, complimenting the higher gas mileage standards of the first term.”
The coming weeks will also see the administration renew focus on financial regulations. On Sunday, Obama noted the fifth anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse during a rare appearance on ABC News’ “This Week.”
The administration has written fewer than half the rules prescribed under the Dodd-Frank reform legislation, but aims to finish most of that work by end of the year. Administration officials see the rules as a chance to reform the financial system to improve both the stability and the financial prospects of middle-class families, without the need to pass legislation through Congress.
On health care, the president will use his executive authority to both protect and promote his signature healthcare law. The White House has carved out a hard line, threatening to veto Republican attempts to delay or defund the implementation of ObamaCare. Democrats also see implementation as a way to set health policy — as it did with requirements that insurers provide free access to birth control, for example. Moreover, the White House could reap political rewards from those able to purchase health insurance for the first time.
“There is no doubt that the ACA, with open enrollment beginning October 1st, is going to be near the top of the Administration’s list of priorities,” said Democratic strategist Doug Thornell. “The dynamics around Obamacare shift dramatically when people who have no health care start getting coverage.
Republicans know this, that’s why they are doing everything they can to sabotage it now.”
Even as the president looks to rack up victories through executive authority, the White House looks likely to pursue a modest, but politically advantageous legislative agenda.
“It’s important to work the normal order, to legislate as well as look for places that you can advance the president's agenda through regulation,” said Southern Methodist University professor Cal Jillson.
The president has spoken repeatedly about how his preference would be to focus attention on his proposal for universal pre-K access. The plan is a popular one with key voter demographics, as are the president’s proposals to tackle rapidly escalating college costs through a new ranking system.
“It’s like Bill Clinton’s school uniforms — not a big ticket, big spending initiative, but a way to work his way back on some smaller issues,” said Jillson. “If you're coming off the disabled list, you’re trying to make contact and hit singles rather than swinging for the fences.”
The administration will also continue its push for new infrastructure spending with a pair of trips to the port cities of Savannah, Ga. and Charleston, S.C. by Vice President Biden on Monday.
“You've seen the vice president doing events on infrastructure,” said Thornell. “It's a very popular with voters - building bridges, fixing roads, investing in ports and it's something that also has a lot of support with many Senate Republicans. They can’t do enough of these events and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are increasingly bipartisan.”
Strategists say that if the president is able to successfully package the moves under a single umbrella — most likely the “better bargain for a middle class” motto that the White House has hammered in recent weeks — they'll help the White House gain momentum.
“It would make sense in terms of the projection of presidential power for him to make clear that he is a president who is bending the arch of history - not a president who is reacting to external developments - by making clear how all of the policy one-offs tie together and support his theory of government,” said Lehane.
i wish he’d just go out and enjoy his nice golf games some more
taxes and energy costs are already too high
“...fill his 2012 campaign scorecard this fall...”
Am I reading that right? Shouldn’t that be 2013/2014 scorecard?
“fulfill”, maybe?
I believe it’s referring to his bs agenda he campaigned on in 2012.
Okay; got it.
Granted, what he's done is bad enough (stopping imports of M1 rifles & carbines with his recent EO)...but it could be worse.
Agree; shutting down the coal industry and coal fired power plants along with cutting the US from 500 years of domestic coal energy production is very big bore indeed.
Obama’s new executive order will kill the 110-year-old Civilian Marksmanship Program
“We’ll continue to work with folks on both sides of the aisle to find common ground around common-sense ideas that’ll help middle class families.”
How Kafka-esque of him.
We pay a huge amount of taxes already to schools. If they want internet connections for students, they can pay for it themselves. This nonsense has to stop.
Absolutely...For the feds to raise taxes on everyone’s bill to provide Internet connection in all schools across the country is not right, especially being that the feds should not be funding schools in the first place.
“fulfill”, maybe?
"Fulfill" would be intelligible, carriage_hill, but I believe "fill" is closer to the source: a "filled" dance card. I've never heard of a filled, empty, or half-filled score card, but dance cards have been filled or left unfilled the past few centuries.
Good point; makes sense, now. Thanks.
In regards to the CMP...the days of sending them a check for $165 (as I did 25 years ago) and receiving an M1 Garand in the mail 3 months later are, sadly, over. Now, the Garands at the CMP website range run about $1000 for a refurbished M1, and the carbines are so rare they only sell them at auctions. 1903 Springfields and 1917 Enfields? Sold out.
If the Korean M1 rifles & carbines had been allowed in, it would have given the CMP a temporary lease on life, but it's on its last legs as it is.
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