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Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Obama Uses White House Briefing To Put Boehner On The Spot
From Human Events:
Obama Uses White House Briefing to Put Boehner on the Spot
by John Gizzi
07/11/2011
In what is becoming a regular routine of using the White House Briefing Room to court support for his budget deal, President Obama used his appearance today before the reporters who cover him (and a national television audience) for a new political ploy: driving a wedge between House Speaker John Boehner and his fellow House Republicans who are backed by the Tea Party movement—which is, by far, a majority of the Republicans in the House.
Aside from his remarks about Boehner and the Republicans, many correspondents left the White House after their hour-long session with him wondering just what was newsworthy about it. As one recently arrived foreign correspondent put it: “Whenever the President says he’s going to hold a press conference, our network automatically cuts in on whatever is on the air, assuming it will be big news. Quite honestly, I don't see why I should even be here today.”
Speaker Boehner, the President said, “would like to do something big” but “his problem is his [Republican] caucus.” Getting Republicans that Boehner presides over to come around to a compromise on the budget “is going to take some work on his side,” Obama said.
Obama mentioned the speaker again in a response to a question from George Condon of the National Journal, who asked whether Boehner is in “control of his caucus.” The President wouldn’t touch that, but did say that Boehner “is a good man who wants to do what is right for his country.” He went on to say that the rest of the House Republican Conference needs to recognize that “democracy works when people listen to each other” and then go on to “make compromises.”
Everyone knew what Obama was talking about and what he meant: that Boehner, as numerous published reports suggested over the weekend, leaned very much toward agreeing to lifting the tax “loopholes” for higher-income Americans and, in return, getting much more than the $2 trillion in spending cuts that the President had come to the table with. Boehner’s sudden statement Saturday that Obama was adamant about raising taxes was followed by no decisive action being taken at the Sunday summit between the White House and congressional leaders—and the continuing impasse between the White House and the Republican-controlled House.
If Obama felt he could somehow get something out of Boehner in terms of the speaker persuading some in his caucus to back a budget deal with the desired ending of tax "loopholes," there are those who would argue that he was mistaken. More than one-third of the members in the largest Republican majority in the House since 1946 were freshmen elected last November for the first time. Almost to a person, each of the 87 freshmen was backed by the Tea Party movement and/or has signed the pledge of Americans for Tax Reform, promising to oppose new or higher taxes. The arithmetic in the caucus, then, works to their advantage—not Obama’s—and Boehner certainly knows this.
For the foreseeable future, Speaker Boehner is not likely to cave to the White House. He knows where the votes are for him to remain speaker.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Gizzi is Political Editor of HUMAN EVENTS.
Obama Uses White House Briefing to Put Boehner on the Spot
by John Gizzi
07/11/2011
In what is becoming a regular routine of using the White House Briefing Room to court support for his budget deal, President Obama used his appearance today before the reporters who cover him (and a national television audience) for a new political ploy: driving a wedge between House Speaker John Boehner and his fellow House Republicans who are backed by the Tea Party movement—which is, by far, a majority of the Republicans in the House.
Aside from his remarks about Boehner and the Republicans, many correspondents left the White House after their hour-long session with him wondering just what was newsworthy about it. As one recently arrived foreign correspondent put it: “Whenever the President says he’s going to hold a press conference, our network automatically cuts in on whatever is on the air, assuming it will be big news. Quite honestly, I don't see why I should even be here today.”
Speaker Boehner, the President said, “would like to do something big” but “his problem is his [Republican] caucus.” Getting Republicans that Boehner presides over to come around to a compromise on the budget “is going to take some work on his side,” Obama said.
Obama mentioned the speaker again in a response to a question from George Condon of the National Journal, who asked whether Boehner is in “control of his caucus.” The President wouldn’t touch that, but did say that Boehner “is a good man who wants to do what is right for his country.” He went on to say that the rest of the House Republican Conference needs to recognize that “democracy works when people listen to each other” and then go on to “make compromises.”
Everyone knew what Obama was talking about and what he meant: that Boehner, as numerous published reports suggested over the weekend, leaned very much toward agreeing to lifting the tax “loopholes” for higher-income Americans and, in return, getting much more than the $2 trillion in spending cuts that the President had come to the table with. Boehner’s sudden statement Saturday that Obama was adamant about raising taxes was followed by no decisive action being taken at the Sunday summit between the White House and congressional leaders—and the continuing impasse between the White House and the Republican-controlled House.
If Obama felt he could somehow get something out of Boehner in terms of the speaker persuading some in his caucus to back a budget deal with the desired ending of tax "loopholes," there are those who would argue that he was mistaken. More than one-third of the members in the largest Republican majority in the House since 1946 were freshmen elected last November for the first time. Almost to a person, each of the 87 freshmen was backed by the Tea Party movement and/or has signed the pledge of Americans for Tax Reform, promising to oppose new or higher taxes. The arithmetic in the caucus, then, works to their advantage—not Obama’s—and Boehner certainly knows this.
For the foreseeable future, Speaker Boehner is not likely to cave to the White House. He knows where the votes are for him to remain speaker.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Gizzi is Political Editor of HUMAN EVENTS.
Obama Promises Tax Increases If Re-Elected
From Human Events:
Obama Promises Tax Increases If Re-Elected
Cut and print for another GOP campaign ad.
by John Hayward
07/12/2011
President Obama held a press conference yesterday to discuss the current state of debt ceiling negotiations. He went for a remarkably long time without ever speaking to the press. His recent performances illustrate why.
Every Obama presser becomes known by one of the bizarre and offensive things he says. The last time he wanted to talk about the fiscal crisis he has created, the result was the “Corporate Jet” press conference. This one shall become known as the “Eat Your Peas” appearance, thanks to a weird metaphor he used to explain why he would not support a stopgap measure to keep the government running, while debt limit negotiations continue:
I will not sign a 30-day or a 60-day or a 90-day extension. That is just not an acceptable approach. And if we think it’s going to be hard - if we think it’s hard now, imagine how these guys are going to be thinking six months from now in the middle of election season where they’re all up. It’s not going to get easier. It’s going to get harder. So we might as well do it now - pull off the Band-Aid; eat our peas. Now is the time to do it. If not now, when?
The problem, Mr. President, is that you and your party ignored the budget wound festering beneath that Band-Aid for years. Senate Democrats haven’t passed a budget in over 800 days. The bowl of peas before Congress has grown moldy, and you very deliberately allowed the situation to degenerate into a last-minute crisis, so that you could insist America scarf down that mess of rancid hummus without asking questions.
The rest of the presser was mostly filled with the usual blather about “sacred cows” - a term never applied to Democrats’ intransigent refusal to even consider discharging their fiscal duty without immediate tax increases as an inducement.
Before that, the Party line was that more debt had to be handed over to the President without preconditions at all. Who was it that said, through spokesmen, that his “very strong view” was that “a clean, standalone” debt limit increase was “imperative?” Why, it was none other than that accomplished sacred-cow puncher, Barack Obama.
The “compromise” between the endless expansion of our insolvent government, and serious spending cuts designed to whittle down our insane national debt, is always presented as being the moderate expansion of the dying system. The government currently takes 18% of our Gross Domestic Product in taxes; the President wanted to make it 20%; now he demands we “compromise” at 19%. Does anyone who follows the rules of this game wonder why our government is a bloated, wasteful mess?
Right after the “eat your peas” moment, Obama made the only real news of his press conference - which was otherwise a waste of America’s time, in which we were conscripted into a political campaign to intimidate wobbly Republicans. In the course of this effort, the President inadvertently gave his Republican presidential opponent a beautiful campaign commercial:
I want to be crystal clear - nobody has talked about increasing taxes now. Nobody has talked about increases - increasing taxes next year. What we have talked about is that starting in 2013, that we have gotten rid of some of these egregious loopholes that are benefiting corporate jet owners or oil companies at a time where they're making billions of dollars of profits. What we have said is as part of a broader package we should have revenues, and the best place to get those revenues are from folks like me who have been extraordinarily fortunate, and that millionaires and billionaires can afford to pay a little bit more - going back to the Bush tax rates.
Oh, dear God, we’re back to the corporate jets again. The lack of imagination inherent to socialism is what makes it so tedious. Show some creativity and pick a new industry to demonize, Mr. President. Suggestion: high-end wineries.
So, we’ve got an ominous promise by Obama to raise taxes again, if he gets re-elected. That’s right, again. He’s already raised billions of dollars in new taxes, and should never be allowed to pretend otherwise.
He capped off his promise with another tiresome bit of class-warfare rhetoric, the “people like me can afford to pay a little bit more” gambit. There are no “folks like you,” Mr. President. Your corporate jet is the finest in the world, and it’s 100 % paid for by the American taxpayer, even though 22 of the 25 domestic flights you’ve taken this year were to fund-raisers or political events tied to your re-election. The expensive foods and fine wines stocked in that jet, and your lavish residence, are also tax-funded.
Your personal prosperity is absolutely assured, for the rest of your life, by virtue of having served as President. Your previous career was likewise marked by political largesse, wildly out of proportion to the non-existent job skills that would never have landed you a comparably rewarding private-sector job… where you would have become a revenue target for desperate socialists. Most people can’t land their wives a $300,000 do-nothing job at a hospital, filling a position eliminated immediately after her departure, and reward the hospital with a million-dollar earmark.
During your four years in office, you will consume more taxpayer-funded perks and luxuries than you could possibly repay through income taxes, during the rest of your working life, even if those taxes are jacked up to the levels you demand. So spare us the dusty class-warfare rhetoric about your eagerness to join us in “paying your fair share.” You are not us. You never have been, and you never will be.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Hayward is a staff writer for HUMAN EVENTS, and author of the recently published Doctor Zero: Year One. Follow him on Twitter: Doc_0. Contact him by email at jhayward@eaglepub.com.
Obama Promises Tax Increases If Re-Elected
Cut and print for another GOP campaign ad.
by John Hayward
07/12/2011
President Obama held a press conference yesterday to discuss the current state of debt ceiling negotiations. He went for a remarkably long time without ever speaking to the press. His recent performances illustrate why.
Every Obama presser becomes known by one of the bizarre and offensive things he says. The last time he wanted to talk about the fiscal crisis he has created, the result was the “Corporate Jet” press conference. This one shall become known as the “Eat Your Peas” appearance, thanks to a weird metaphor he used to explain why he would not support a stopgap measure to keep the government running, while debt limit negotiations continue:
I will not sign a 30-day or a 60-day or a 90-day extension. That is just not an acceptable approach. And if we think it’s going to be hard - if we think it’s hard now, imagine how these guys are going to be thinking six months from now in the middle of election season where they’re all up. It’s not going to get easier. It’s going to get harder. So we might as well do it now - pull off the Band-Aid; eat our peas. Now is the time to do it. If not now, when?
The problem, Mr. President, is that you and your party ignored the budget wound festering beneath that Band-Aid for years. Senate Democrats haven’t passed a budget in over 800 days. The bowl of peas before Congress has grown moldy, and you very deliberately allowed the situation to degenerate into a last-minute crisis, so that you could insist America scarf down that mess of rancid hummus without asking questions.
The rest of the presser was mostly filled with the usual blather about “sacred cows” - a term never applied to Democrats’ intransigent refusal to even consider discharging their fiscal duty without immediate tax increases as an inducement.
Before that, the Party line was that more debt had to be handed over to the President without preconditions at all. Who was it that said, through spokesmen, that his “very strong view” was that “a clean, standalone” debt limit increase was “imperative?” Why, it was none other than that accomplished sacred-cow puncher, Barack Obama.
The “compromise” between the endless expansion of our insolvent government, and serious spending cuts designed to whittle down our insane national debt, is always presented as being the moderate expansion of the dying system. The government currently takes 18% of our Gross Domestic Product in taxes; the President wanted to make it 20%; now he demands we “compromise” at 19%. Does anyone who follows the rules of this game wonder why our government is a bloated, wasteful mess?
Right after the “eat your peas” moment, Obama made the only real news of his press conference - which was otherwise a waste of America’s time, in which we were conscripted into a political campaign to intimidate wobbly Republicans. In the course of this effort, the President inadvertently gave his Republican presidential opponent a beautiful campaign commercial:
I want to be crystal clear - nobody has talked about increasing taxes now. Nobody has talked about increases - increasing taxes next year. What we have talked about is that starting in 2013, that we have gotten rid of some of these egregious loopholes that are benefiting corporate jet owners or oil companies at a time where they're making billions of dollars of profits. What we have said is as part of a broader package we should have revenues, and the best place to get those revenues are from folks like me who have been extraordinarily fortunate, and that millionaires and billionaires can afford to pay a little bit more - going back to the Bush tax rates.
Oh, dear God, we’re back to the corporate jets again. The lack of imagination inherent to socialism is what makes it so tedious. Show some creativity and pick a new industry to demonize, Mr. President. Suggestion: high-end wineries.
So, we’ve got an ominous promise by Obama to raise taxes again, if he gets re-elected. That’s right, again. He’s already raised billions of dollars in new taxes, and should never be allowed to pretend otherwise.
He capped off his promise with another tiresome bit of class-warfare rhetoric, the “people like me can afford to pay a little bit more” gambit. There are no “folks like you,” Mr. President. Your corporate jet is the finest in the world, and it’s 100 % paid for by the American taxpayer, even though 22 of the 25 domestic flights you’ve taken this year were to fund-raisers or political events tied to your re-election. The expensive foods and fine wines stocked in that jet, and your lavish residence, are also tax-funded.
Your personal prosperity is absolutely assured, for the rest of your life, by virtue of having served as President. Your previous career was likewise marked by political largesse, wildly out of proportion to the non-existent job skills that would never have landed you a comparably rewarding private-sector job… where you would have become a revenue target for desperate socialists. Most people can’t land their wives a $300,000 do-nothing job at a hospital, filling a position eliminated immediately after her departure, and reward the hospital with a million-dollar earmark.
During your four years in office, you will consume more taxpayer-funded perks and luxuries than you could possibly repay through income taxes, during the rest of your working life, even if those taxes are jacked up to the levels you demand. So spare us the dusty class-warfare rhetoric about your eagerness to join us in “paying your fair share.” You are not us. You never have been, and you never will be.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Hayward is a staff writer for HUMAN EVENTS, and author of the recently published Doctor Zero: Year One. Follow him on Twitter: Doc_0. Contact him by email at jhayward@eaglepub.com.
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