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Obama to Antagonize GOP in State of the Union
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
January 20, 2015
All Rights Reserved.
Preparing to speak to a joint session of Congress in
the State of the Union Speech, 53-year-old president Barack Obama shows no signs
of conciliation in his last two years in office.
Hoping he’d redeem his 2008 promise to serve as the nation’s first
post-partisan president, Obama plans to offer a non-starter of a plan to tax the
wealthy. Asking Republicans for a
new tax on the wealthy is like asking Barack to repeal his Affordable Care Act. When he came to office six years ago
today, Obama almost immediately let House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid dictate the White House agenda of national
health care. When the Senate
approved the ACA Dec. 24, 2009 without one Republican vote, Barck set the stage
for his presidency. Signing the ACA
into law March 23, 2010, Obama guaranteed himself the most partisan presidency
in modern history.
While campaigning for president in 2008 against GOP nominee Sen. John
McCain (R-Ariz.), Obama talked often about Washington gridlock under policies of
former President George W. Bush.
Obama has nothing to show for his legislative agenda other than Obamacare, the
most bitterly divided legislation in U.S. history. When Bush signed Medicare’s
prescription drug law Dec. 8, 2003, known as Medicare Part D, he had bipartisan
support. Obama hasn’t pivoted from
the shellacking Demcorats took in the Nov. 4, 2014 Midterm elections. Faced with GOP control in the House
and Senate, Obama shouldn’t lecture the GOP about the “wealth disparity,” hoping
to pick the pockets of rich Americans.
Instead of promoting more acrimony, the president should find common
ground with the GOP on issues relevant to all Americans, not throwing gasoline
on the partisan fire.
Riding rising approval ratings nearing 50%, Obama isn’t inclined to play
ball with Republicans between now and the 2016 election. “I see this as the president
returning to the theme of class warfare,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.),
regarding Obama’s plan to tax the rich.
“It may have been effective in 2012, but I don’t find it to be effective
anymore. I think, frankly, he’s out
of ideas if he is unwilling to work with Republicans, and I think he’s is
unwilling to work with Republicans,” said Kinzinger. Vowing to veto GOP anti-abortion and
Keystone XL pipeline bills, Obama sets up more acrimony during his final two
years. Instead of finding common
ground, the White House continues the same partisan direction that has led to
Washington’s gridlock. Throwing the
GOP a bone on Keystone XL would have opened the door for Obama to end his
presidency on a bipartisan note.
Asking the GOP to tax the wealth to finance the Middle Class could not be
more antagonistic. Without
realizing it, Obama gives the GOP the best talking points for why the nation
needs a Republican president in 2016.
No system of government—including the two-party system—can survive when
one party checks out of the working relationhsip. In order to get a little, including
less resistance to his executive action on halting deportations, Obama needs
only to make some minor concession on Keystone XL. Not one opponent of the TransCandada
pipeline, including Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), can show how it hurts the
environment. Applying any logic
tells even the pipeline’s worst critic that piping crude oil from Canada to the
Gulf saves thousands, if not millions, of tons of diesel truck emissions, let
alone wear-and-tear on American Interstates and highways.
Obama’s State of the Union speech sets the tone for what promises to be
the most competitive GOP primary race in modern history. Showing the same partisan agenda makes Democrats’ jobs more difficult heading into an
Election Year. More gridlock in the
next two years makes the GOP argument why the nation can’t hire another
Democratic president in 2016. “More
government, $300 billion-plus tax bill from Barack Obama, is not the formula for this country to
succeed,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) told John King on CNN’s State of the
Union last Sunday. When Obama takes
the podium tonight, he’ll no doubt tout the economic recovery that’s created
millions of private sector jobs, drooped the unemployment rate to 5.6%, cut the
federal budget deficit by two-thirds, improved Gross Domestic Product to nearly
5% and helped Wall Street fuel the biggest rally in modern history.
Touting the economy in his State of the Union speech, when too many
Americans have less income and more part-time jobs, Obama runs the risk of the
economy petering out between now and the election. Given ups-and-down in the economy,
talking up the economy won’t win the president too much backing, unless he shows
a successful legislative agenda.
While it’s one thing to veto a GOP-backed anti-abortion bill, it’s still another
to nix the Keystone XL, when it does more good than bad. “We just had an election in which
the president said his policies were on the ballot,” said Stuart Stevens, an
advisor to Romney in 2012. Without
showing some deference to the Midterm Election turning the House more Republican
and handing the Senate to the GOP, Obama will only make himself more of a lame
duck Obama needs to find
common ground with the GOP or look even more irrelevant.
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