Posted on 03/11/2009 7:28:25 PM PDT by GOPGuide
President Obama’s honeymoon is beginning to fade.
Members of Congress and old political hands say he needs to show substantial progress reviving the economy soon.
Some Democrats have started to worry that voters don’t and won’t understand the link between economic revival and Obama’s huge agenda, which includes saving the banking industry, ending home foreclosures, reforming healthcare and developing a national energy policy, among much else.
While lawmakers debate controversial proposals contained in the new president’s debut budget — cutting farm subsidies, raising taxes on charitable contributions, etc. — there is a growing sense that time is running out faster than expected.
Democrats from states racked by recession say Obama needs to produce an uptick by August or face unpleasant consequences. Others say that there is more time, but that voters need to see improvement by the middle of next year.
The most optimistic say Obama and Democrats in Congress will face a political backlash unless the economy improves by Election Day 2010.
“We’ve got to see an uptick by August or the Democratic majority is in jeopardy,” said Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), whose state had an 11.6 percent unemployment rate in January.
Stupak doesn’t fault Obama for pursuing healthcare reform, because high medical costs are intertwined with the economic difficulties, he said.
But Obama must move quickly, he added, saying, “By summer there is no more honeymoon. Period.”
Other Democrats and some Republicans question whether Obama’s attention is too thinly spread — whether his economic message may be diminished by forays into healthcare, education and energy reform.
“I think any political honeymoon has a short life, and in this economic climate it’s dictated by the public’s perception of hope for the economy,” said former Democratic Sen. Richard Bryan, who represented Nevada for 12 years.
Bryan described himself as an Obama supporter who derived “intellectual satisfaction” from the president’s healthcare, education and climate proposals. But he questioned whether most people connected such complicated issues to the plunging values of their retirement accounts or to soaring unemployment.
Pervasive voter uncertainty means Obama needs to emphasize short-term measures to fix the economy, Bryan said. “If there’s not a sense that we’ve reached bottom and there’s a sense of uncertainty, I think the president’s support will erode fairly rapidly,” he added.
Obama’s plan to create a $634 billion healthcare fund has triggered tension among members of his own party. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) criticized Obama’s call to cut high-income earners’ deductions on charitable contributions. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) also voiced concerns.
Meanwhile, financial markets have plunged and unemployment numbers have risen. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen more than 2,000 points since Election Day and by just over 1,000 points since Obama took the oath of office. The economy has shed nearly 2 million jobs in the last three months.
Democratic sniping at the administration’s healthcare plans gives Republicans an opening to attack.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Hill that Obama has little time left to conjure an economic turnaround, though he added there “is no magical date.”
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said some people already expect to see positive economic results from Obama, even though he’s been in office less than two months and the economic crisis has been more than eight years in the making.
“I think he’s got six months,” Nagin said of Obama’s honeymoon. “The real attack dogs will come out at the end of the year, if there is not real progress.”
Obama’s push along a wide policy front has begun to alienate admirers on the other side of the political spectrum.
“I fear that in trying to do everything at once, they will do nothing well,” wrote conservative columnist David Brooks, a self-described Obama fan, in a recent column in The New York Times. “I fear that we have a group of people who haven’t even learned to use their new phone system trying to redesign half the U.S. economy.”
Obama’s wide-ranging vision has soured commentators who had earlier praised his job performance. “Obama’s proposals for many hundreds of billions in additional spending on universal healthcare, universal postsecondary education, a massive overhaul of the energy economy, and other liberal programs seem grandiose and unaffordable,” wrote Stuart Taylor in the National Journal.
Don Fowler, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said he supported Obama’s approach but acknowledged that the debate over healthcare reform could drag down his administration.
“Healthcare is an incredible political morass,” said Fowler, noting that Obama will have to take on powerful interests such as hospitals, insurance companies and the American Medical Association.
Fowler said it would require the wisdom of Solomon to forge a compromise, and warned that healthcare could become what Social Security reform was to President Bush’s second term.
To pass healthcare reform, Obama will need Republican allies. But some potential GOP partners say Obama is using the crisis to rush through a partisan liberal wish list.
“I don’t think there’s any question that they are trying to use this economic crisis to put in place a massive expansion of the size of government in the area of healthcare and education,” said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who recently withdrew as Obama’s nominee for Commerce secretary. “They’re using this as a stalking horse, this severe economic situation.”
Gregg pulled out of consideration, saying the job would have obliged him to support a more broadly liberal agenda than he had expected.
Nevertheless, he held out hope that Democrats and Republicans could find some common ground, such as on curbing entitlement costs. Gregg said Republicans also liked Obama’s decision to leave a sizable reserve of U.S. troops in Iraq.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, who has worked with Democrats on healthcare reform, said Obama needs to focus on the economy.
“He’s got to use a rifle shot on the economy,” he said. “He’s emphasizing [other issues] to too great of an extent so people don’t think he’s serious about the economy.
“He’s biting off too much, considering how bad the economy is,” Grassley added, noting that the stock market has fallen significantly since Obama won the election on a platform to reform healthcare and fight global warming.
Bush’s fault... ; )
Dems learned under Bill Clinton that love and adulation for him doesn't transfer to them. They were desperately hoping that all of the Obamagasms would also carry them in his wake but that didn't happen. They now have to save their own skins and that means becoming more centrist, or at least pretending to be so much it hurts.
It made his head tingle, instead of his leg.
Doubleplusgood, comrade. A healthy self-criticism session is the first step to proletarian revolutionary healing. You have earned an extra 1/4 cup in your rice ration...as soon as we have some rice.
“He’s got to use a rifle shot on the economy,” he said. “He’s emphasizing [other issues] to too great of an extent so people don’t think he’s serious about the economy.
I thought "rifle shots" killed things. I guess I must be mistaken.
Healthcare "reform" would do just that.
“conservative columnist David Brooks”
give me a freakin’ break...no conservative thinks this is guy is a conservative....he’s a liberal pretending to be a conservative to discredit the movement...
The Democrats should Google this word....”purge”.
“The Democrats should Google this word....”purge”.”
That’s what follows a binge, isn’t it?
After the Dems’ spending binge, I hope and pray we will purge them from Congress in 2010.
Something akin to a "circle jerk."
LOL—GREAT pics. “Lord Obama, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz...”
Thank you. Fifteen pictures in that, think it’s the largest slideshow I’ve ever made!
Voters won’t get the link because there isn’t a positive one.
Keep in mind that these articles about democrats and economists stating little faith in the administrations policies are happening 6 weeks in office. Way too soon.
Dems and econs are now beginning to show signs of little faith and emerging critism. (you can imagine what they are saying behind closed doors). While the radical and liberal left are running the WH and Congress, I estimate as many as 2/3’s of the dems in Congress are not radical. Many of those who ran against reps in 2006 and 2008 ran to the right of the reps.
My prediction is that by summer, there may be a split in the dems in Congress. The moderate dems will be siding more and more with the GOP to stop Hussien, Reid and Pelosi. While these three want to either destroy and reshape America, many of the moderate dems don’t have those views which will become increasing unpopular as time goes on. These dems don’t want the destroy our economy, Wall Street or our defense.
I am not trying to give the moderate dems a pass but I am saying that they thier socialist party leaders will take them to the ledge of socialism and many of the dems will not go.
What we have now is a race between Obama and his handlers working furiously to kill America as we know it and turn it into a 100% communist state and the congress coming to realize that unless they impeach this stealth Manchurian candidate, they will all be out of a job because their constituencies will throw them out for aiding this demagogue.
They just don’t get “cause & effect” in DC!
The Democrat congress “caused” the crisis to hurt GW...
The “effect” is that Zero is IN-effective to stop
the momentum of said crisis!
D U M B!
Want a friend in Washington? Get a dog!
The ‘genius’ is a dumb*ss! He can't even give one of his 'famous' speeches without a teleprompter!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.