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Obama Points Fingers at GOP, Not Himself
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
July 31, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
For most of his nearly six years in office,
52-year-old Barack Obama continues to blame the GOP for getting nothing done in
Congress. When the young president
signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law March 23, 2010, a
little more than 14 months after taking office, his presidency headed south. Instead of trying to get consensus
from the Republican Party on health care reform, Obama followed the advice of
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
(D-Nev.), pushing through a massive piece of controversial legislation without
one Republican vote. Instead of
fulfilling his promise to serve as a post-partisan president, Obama became the
most rabidly partisan president in modern history. Following the Democratic Party zeal
for national health care, Obama destroyed his presidency before he knew anything
about the office.
Speaking to a partisan crowd in an historic uptown Kansas City theatre,
Obama ripped the GOP for throwing roadblocks into practically every piece of
Democratic-backed legislation.
“Stop being mad all the time. Stop
just hating all the time. Come on,”
said Barack. Obama painted the
gridlock in Washington as the GOP’s fault not admitting that forcing Obmacare on
the GOP didn’t help his chances in a Republican-controlled House. When voters went to the polls in
2012, they booted Democrats out of the House, a resounding slap to Obama for his
health care legislation. Working
with the insurance industry without any backing from the GOP in Congress,
Obamacare has encountered one problem after another, not to mention
computer-related enrollment problems when the first open enrollment period
started Oct. 11, 2013, leaving the long-term program in doubt.
Obama’s domestic agenda, from immigration reform to infrastructure
projects, are all in doubt because he got off on the wrong foot. His unwillingness or inability to
woo the opposition in Congress has made progress on important bipartisan
legislation next to impossible.
Recent talk in Congress about suing the president for bypassing Congress and
abusing his presidential authority all stems from his failure to win any
national domestic consensus. Making
matters worse for Obama are foreign policy failures drawing the ire of
conservatives on Capitol but also members of his own Party. His approach to the latest Mideast
war between Gaza’s Hamas militants and Israel has put his domestic agenda in
doubt. “I know they’re not happy
that I’m president,” Obama said. “I’ve only got a couple of years left. Come on, let’s get some work done.” Then you can be mad at the next president.”
Taking shots at the GOP House or Senate conservatives doesn’t help his
prospects of completing any meaningful bipartisan reform. Refusing to fund a new border
security bill, the GOP has put things on hold until after November’s Midterm
elections. With the Israeli-Hamas
war raging on, with Iraq and Syira falling to the Islamic state and with Russia
grabbing Crimea and causing more problems in Eastern Ukraine, Obama hasn’t been
managing world events with much authority.
Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry haven’t helped matters asking
Turkey and Oatar to get involved with Egyptian-brokered ceasefire deals. Obama and Kerry have been too swept
up with U.N. criticism to back Israel at a difficult time when it’s under siege
from one on the world’s most deadly terror groups. Making concessions to terrorists
makes a mockery of post-Sept. 11 U.S. anti-terror policy.
Nearly six years into his presidency, Obama should take a hard look at
how he’s loused up relations with Congress.
While he’s a lightening rod for the Tea Party and other GOP
conservatives, the absence of deal-making has only made things worse. Touting the economy could be
premature with the stock market poised either for a correction or the next bear
market. If the stock market heads South, all bets are off when it comes to the economy. Whatever recent gains to U.S. Gross
Domestic Product now four percent in the second quarter, it could crash very
quickly. Given instability around
the globe, any glitch in the stock market could torpedo Democrats’ hopes for
holding onto the Senate in November.
“We hold the best cards,” said Obama, praising the economic recovery. With the bull market starting to
disintegrate, Obama could wind up holding the bag this November.
Blaming Congress for all the gridlock in Washington, Obama opens himself
up to more criticism. Whether he’s
liked or hated by GOP in Congress, the president still has to make the overtures
to get along. Given all the foreign
policy challenges, talking up the economy won’t distract voters from honing in
what’s going on around the globe—and it doesn’t look good. Watching Putin threaten more territory in Ukraine, Islamic radicals running roughshod in
Iraq and Syria and Israel fighting Hamas militants in Gaza, the White looks like
they’ve let world events get out of hand.
“Things are getting better.
The decisions we make now could make things even better than that,” referring to
the economy but also foreign policy.
Letting events get out of hand overseas doesn’t speak highly of Obama’s
foreign policy. Letting Kerry’s spat with Israel get on the nightly news also doesn’t help the White
House.
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