Posted on 08/16/2011 5:42:17 AM PDT by markomalley
President Barack Obama is eyeing a 2012 campaign modeled on President Harry Truman’s 1948 successful re-election campaign against Congress. First, however, the White House will send to Capitol Hill an assortment of ‘economy-boosting’ legislation in a package that may include a major overhaul of the tax code.
“I’ll be putting forward, when they come back in September, a very specific plan to boost the economy, to create jobs, and to control our deficit,” Obama told a friendly audience at a Decorah, Minnesota campaign-event on Monday.
“My attitude is, get it done … [but] if they don’t get it done, then we’ll be running against a Congress that’s not doing anything for the American people, and the choice will be very stark and will be very clear.”
“My hope is that Congress is willing to take up tax reform,” he said. “So far they’ve said that they’re willing to do it, but so far we haven’t seen a lot of energy on the part of some folks in actually delivering on tax reform,” he added.
The potential success of Obama’s proposed strategy is unclear. The GOP nominee has not been selected and Obama’s approval rate has declined to 39 percentage points, according to Gallup. Also, Obama failed to get Republicans in Congress to approve a tax-boosting “Grand Bargain” during the debt-ceiling talks, even though a deal would have bolstered his campaign-trail claims that he is a fiscal conservative and a consensus builder in Washington.
The run-against-Congress campaign strategy echoes the successful 1948 campaign of President Harry Truman, who also inveighed against a “do-nothing” Congress while competing against a GOP presidential candidate.
The Republicans had a 60-vote majority in the House, and passed many pro-growth bills that were signed into law by Truman. The House passed the Taft-Hartley union regulation bill and a landmark defense reform measure. It also enacted the forerunner to the Current Clean Water Act. The House established the military ties that would become NATO and the the Marshall Plan, which helped revive the war-damaged European economies.
But Truman’s do-nothing claim stuck, partly because the country was in a postwar recession.
Truman won the election with 49.6 percent of the vote against the expected winner, New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, who took 45.1 percent of the vote.
Obama did not describe the proposals that he would send to Congress in September, but did repeat a litany of measures that he has cited in his stump speeches. The proposals include an update of patent laws, a government backed infrastructure bank to fund state and local construction projects, tax increases on wealthy Americans, passage of three free-trade deals and extension of the temporary payroll tax-cut.
Following a question from the audience, Obama also endorsed a major reform of the tax code.
The “super-committee” of 12 legislators that was created by the debt-ceiling deal could close “a bunch of these loopholes and tax breaks,” he said, which would allow Congress to “lower the overall rate, broaden the base.”
“It would be a fairer, easier system that would combine simplification with, actually, more revenue,” he said.
However, Obama also said he would oppose a reform that lowered the overall percentage of taxes paid by the wealthy. “I think it’s very important for us to maintain what’s called progressivity in the tax code,” the president said.
“You can reform the tax code where you just have a flat tax, for example; the problem is Warren Buffett would probably pay even less in taxes, and a lot of companies would pay even less in taxes if you set up that system,” he said.
The 2003 tax code signed by President George W. Bush increased the percentage of taxes paid by the wealthy.
For example, Bush’s cut ended income-tax payments by roughly 10 million families, boosted the child tax-credit and ensured that the poorest 40 percent of families do not pay income taxes,” according to an analysis by the Heritage Foundation.
Similarly, a December 2006 report by the Congressional Budget Office reported that the top 5 percent of tax-payers saw their share of all federal income taxes rise from 56.6 percent to 58.4 percent.”
During his speech, Obama said he agreed in December to continue the Bush-approved tax cuts because their end would have been painful to middle-class families. Ending the taxes “would have meant that the average family saw their taxes go up $3,000 on average, at a time when they were still digging themselves out of a debt hole,” he said.
“It would have been very bad for the economy,” he said.
If the Republican Congress does not cooperate with his proposals, “I will take my case to the American people,” he said. If Republicans “want to sit there and do nothing for the next 16 months, while unemployment is still high and small businesses are still suffering, then ultimately they’re going to be held to account by you,” he told his audience.
AND he will do it all ignoring congress and by executive order.
So which country is he thinking of nuking?
In addition running against the GOP house means running with Nancy Pelosi. She still is quite hated around the country and her continued presence will be an albatross around the neck of the Democrats. OK a dead sea bird would probably be more pleasant to have around than Pelosi but you get the picture.
Is there no end to this man’s delusions?
Obama may run Truman-style 2012 campaign...
Truman believed “the busck” stopped with him, not somebody else, so I don’t see how this skid mark of a pResident will be able to pull it off.
It’s almost pitiful to think that the fool actually seems to believe this crap is the answer...
one moment obama is reagan,
the next, lincoln,
and now, truman.
"boost the economy" = even more government spending, "create jobs" = more worthless government programs, "control our deficit" = raise taxes on the "rich".
So - tax cuts for everyone except those who are paying taxes.
That’s another winner Bambi! Right up there with the Chevy Volt and the Department of Jobs!
This is a failed presidency that’s just flailing for answers.
Expect more of these gimmicks
Why should he stop doing that now?/sarc
Here's one: Truman vacationed at his home or on an Army base. Bess never went off gallivanting around the world with 300 of her "best friends." ML/NJ
So far Obama has been emulating Washington, Lincoln, FDR, JFK, Reagan - and now Truman.
Why stop there? Why not become Joan of Arc, George III, Attila the Hun and Julius Ceasar?
the next, lincoln,
and now, truman.
Next stop, Jimmah...
I was just about to post a picture of that same poster!
I think that Obama’s campaign will indeed be like The Truman Show, with the “star” (Obama) being unaware that reality is far different from what his handlers have led him to believe. I doubt that Obama will have a Pat Caddell willing to tell him, the day before the election, that he won’t come close to winning.
For Barack Hussein obama—a muslim communist puppet of George Soros whose traitorous goal is to take down America—to compare himself with Harry S Truman—one of our greatest President, and no one’s puppet—is next to blasphemy!!!!
Republicans better nomInate a decent candidate. It would be national suicide to reelect Soebarkah!!!!
why it won’t work for Obama:
1. Truman was able to run against both houses of Congress
2. Dewey quit campaigning altogether 3 weeks b4 the election
3. there were no TV cameras in those days
This is all nonsense and evidence of someone who has nothing to say.
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