Did President Obama answer the question honestly? Yes, he did. He cannot guarantee that SS check will go out in August. It depends.
I am just stunned at those who ascribe all sorts of motives to him for telling the truth. You say in so many words that he should know that the people are too dumb to understand what he said. (Those that pay any attention to Drudge deserve to be scared out of their wits.) Others here fault him for other reasons.
I’m glad that he levelled with the people. What he said was nothing new to me. Anyone watching the news knows that SS checks, checks to Vets, support checks to military families – just about everything is possibly on the chopping block. I don’t think that the President can personally do much on his own. Maybe there is part of the Constitution that he may try to float by on. That leaves him open to attempts to possibly impeach him. My understanding is very limited.
I do think that the President has the welfare of the country at heart and I don’t trust very many Congressional members anymore – certainly no one who supports subsidies for oil companies and corporate jets. That is beyond explaination. Throw the bums out!
Speaking of Dan Q. vs. JFK. Abraham Lincoln had less experience in Congress than either of them.
ISTM that Eric Cantor is the problem child on the room. Obama’s been willing to make concessions that anger his base, Boehner and McConnell seem at least somewhat willing to wheel and deal, but Cantor is being extremely stubborn and rude, as well. Also, Cantor is the only one claiming Obama “stalked out”. Cantor’s a known liar and an unbending reed. Plus, I read his personal portfolio is set to profit from a default. Time to give him the old heave-ho.
Did you miss the part where the House voted on the budget which would require upping the debt limit? This is more like saying, “Sure, honey, I’m going to quit my job (lower taxes) and buy all those video games (start a few wars) and now that we’re in the hole and the house is about to be repossessed, I’m not going to let you borrow any money unless you kick your granny out of the nursing home.”
He could have probably guarnteed it Then the next question would be “can you guarantee that the military pay will go out on time?” Then the next question, “can you guarantee all the treasury bond payments will be met?” Then, “Can you guarantee enough highway funds and parks will have their money?”
No, you can’t guarantee everything will be paid. IMHO, it was good politics to point that out right off the bat, the Republicans are playing with fire, and if we don’t have a deal, it’s impossible to know what will get paid and what won’t. Why should Social Security be at the top of the list? Is it more important then the paycheck of someone who’s working an government job?
Which is all why an experienced politician would have dodged the question. If he’d answered as I proposed in the OP, he would have forestalled all that and put the ball back in Congress’s court on the social security thing. Instead, he personally identified himself with the issue.
Again, faculty lounge denizens and SDMB posters seem to have this distaste for politics and naive principle that one can only honestly answer “yes” or “no.” The whole story of the Obama presidency’s meltdown is that of political theory colliding with political reality.
“Obama presidency’s meltdown”? Are you fucking kidding me? He told the truth , drawing attention from the public to the issue, and he made the Republicans look terrible for refusing to deal! He looks reasonable, they look like overly stubborn fools willing to play games with the future of the united states. That’s a pretty smart move in my books.
We will see what the outcome is in a few days. It looks pretty likely right now that the GOP will cave. They are going to pass their bill in the House, it will die in the Senate, and then they will pass the McConnell plan.
One might note that the McConnell plan was revealed the day after Obama made the terrible gaffe you mention in the OP.
Agreed. Obama has shown time and time again he’s five steps ahead of the rest of us and knows exactly what he’s doing. If this is a “Meltdown,” give me more.
You keep asserting that this was somehow a bad move by Obama, perhaps even one that will cause a meltdown of his presidency.
You seem to be the only one to believe this.
Are you able to present any evidence to the contrary?
Check out the results of the CBS News poll from 7/15, which is after Obama made what you see as a serious gaffe that insinuated himself into the discussion.
They reveal that 60% of the people think that Obama is trying to find a solution to the standoff, compared to only 32% who think the Republicans in Congress are. When asked who they blame more for the current budget standoff: the Republicans in Congress or Barack Obama, 49% say the Republicans, and 29% say Obama.
Importantly, on 6/3, when asked “In general, do you think Congress should or should not raise the federal debt ceiling?”, only 24% said that it should. On 7/15, after Obama made his statement, that number jumped to 46%.
Your position is completely at odds with the evidence.
Yes, that is a major vein of complaint among progressive blogs.
But is he really inept or just pretending to be? I don’t know. He doesn’t seem to want to use executive powers when he can (recess appointments, constitutional option for debt ceiling) and he backs off his own stated opinions. Plus he doesn’t seem to want to play hardball with congress the way Bush did (threatening people’s chairmanships, etc). What are his motives?
-Fear of a public backlash
-Fear of a partisan backlash
-He really doesn’t want to pass the law he publicly claims he wants to pass
-Fear of a backlash from powerful business interests
-He really is inept and wimpy
I really don’t know, it is probably a combo. I know in the 90s Obama (when he was running for IL state senate) said he supported gay marriage. Now as president he opposes it. He supported single payer around 2003, now he couldn’t even get the public option passed.
Then again maybe he isn’t inept and we just think he is because his failures get all the media attention. Supposedly he has kept and passed many of the promises he made on the campaign trail.
