Thread: Obama focused on healthcare,not jobs ?

A Perfect Storm Brewing for Obama and Democrats
Voters seem to be losing patience with Washington’s focus on healthcare, not jobs
It's make-or-break time for President Obama and the Democrats. They served notice last week that, despite doubts and opposition from the public and the GOP, they are going for broke to win passage of a massive healthcare overhaul.

A perfect storm seems to be gathering over what many Americans consider the capital's dysfunction and hubris, and the healthcare plan is, for many, Exhibit A. Obama and his congressional allies have pushed the issue for a year, with no final result, creating an image of futility and over-reaching. Some of the problem is internal. Democrats have been unable to compromise on the House and Senate's conflicting bills, even though they control both chambers.

But last week, the president signaled that he wants Congress to finally finish. "Now is the time to make a decision," Obama declared, advocating for the controversial procedure known as "reconciliation," which requires only a 51-vote Senate majority instead of the regular superÂ*majority of 60 votes. "At stake right now is not just our ability to solve this problem but our ability to solve any problem," he said. "The American people want to know if it's still possible for Washington to look out for their interests and their future. They are waiting for us to act."

It may be a long wait. The forces of gridlock and polarization remain powerful. Republicans, for example, argue that Obamacare is expensive and intrusive, and polls show most Americans agree, so the GOP won't budge.

"This is a defining moment," says Bill Galston, a political scientist at the Brookings Institution. Galston, a former aide to President Bill Clinton, adds: "I lived through the experience of working for a year" trying to win passage for healthcare reform at the start of Clinton's presidency. That effort failed, undermining the Democrats' argument that they could govern effectively. "The results were pretty catastrophic," Galston recalls. Democrats proceeded to lose control of both the House and Senate in 1994. Party leaders fear that a similar outcome may await them in November if they come up short on healthcare.

But healthcare is only part of Washington's problem. Every few days, there seems to be a new case of dysfunction and deadlock that demonstrates the growing distance from everyÂ*day America plaguing both parties. Take the strange episode involving Jim Bunning. The GOP senator from Kentucky used a parliamentary maneuver to single-handedly block legislation to extend unemployment insurance and health benefits for thousands of people. Bunning said that he wanted the extensions to be paid for so they wouldn't add to the deficit. But his critics angrily denounced him for picking the wrong way to dramatize his point and for being obstructionist while Americans suffered. Bunning relented after a few days. But for many, the affair gave Washington another black eye, making it seem to be a place where personal agendas and compulsions too often overwhelm common sense.

Or take the allegations against New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, who stepped aside as chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee amid charges that he violated congressional rules in accepting corporate freebies. Rangel says he didn't break any laws and argued that he will be vindicated. But the incident revived the image of Washington as an ethical swamp.

There is also the backbiting aimed at White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Critics say that he is too much of a Washington insider and has lost touch with Obama's campaign appeal as an outsider. Allies see Emanuel as a voice of reason who knows how to get things done and whose advice President Obama has unwisely ignored. The tug of war over Emanuel's role is a familiar Washington story. When a president runs into trouble, his chief of staff often encounters this kind of second-guessing and sniping.

Finally, Texas Gov. Rick Perry's overwhelming victory in a GOP gubernatorial primary was another warning for the Establishment. Perry's campaign portrayed his opponent, longtime Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, as a Washington insider. His big win serves notice that congressional incumbents could have a problem this fall if the anti-Washington fever intensifies.

Perhaps the biggest outrage for voters is that while the titans of national politics debate healthcare and other secondary issues, not enough is being done about most people's top priority: jobs. The seemingly endless healthcare debate looks like another case of misplaced priorities, a metaphor for out-of-control and isolated government. Voters seem to be losing patience
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/oba ... crats.html

Dysfunction and hubris is putting it mildly. I would call it arrogant stupidity and thumbing nose, sticking out tongue at the electorate. Remember, they all know better than the common masses. Then throw in closed-door politics, so it matters naught what the American people think -- about anything.

Alex said on: March 10, 2010, 5:13 pm

For Hussein Obama, it's more urgent to pass a monolithic, wasteful and costly healthcare program than to seriously address this catastrophic unemployment issue. Oh well, I guess it's ok to be hungry and homeless, as long as you have that good ol' American healthcare coverage. Then again, we'll definitely need it to treat the future millions suffering from the effects of starvation and malnutrition. Hooray for the messiah! Hope and change, hope and change, hope and change...

BigBadJohn said on: March 10, 2010, 1:53 pm

I can get $450 a week (forever) plus healthcare benefits plus food stamps plus other goodies, why look for a job?

WASHINGTON — They just don't get it in Washington.

There's a gaping disconnect between what Americans care about and what President Barack Obama and Congress, Democrats and Republicans are actually doing. A new Associated Press-GfK poll tells the story: contempt for lawmakers, a bare majority approving what Obama's doing.

Or just listen to Robert Watson.

He backed Obama in 2008. He lost his job at a direct mail company in the Great Recession. And he's been looking for work ever since. Neither Obama nor Congress, Watson says, is addressing what really matters: "I'm still unemployed."

"There's nobody doing any hiring," he says. And when they are, "100 people are going for the same job." He wants Obama to focus more on creating jobs, Congress to stop the partisan games and both to remember who sent them to Washington.

"They just can't seem to agree on what's important for this country," laments Watson, 59, of Annapolis, Md. "It's just a mess."

Now look at Washington.

The White House and Congress are consumed with the partisan gridlock on overhauling health care. That issue is overshadowing everything else — even legislation in the House and Senate to provide unemployment relief.

The Senate did vote Wednesday to extend many elements of last year's economic stimulus, including help for the jobless. But that isn't final: The vote merely sends the measure into talks with the House, which is wary about some Senate provisions.

At the same time, Democrats and Republicans are jockeying for the upper hand on every issue they can ahead of this fall's midterm elections. Corruption is the latest: Each party has spent the past week painting the other as more tainted.

Job creation and economic recovery — and cooperation in Washington to achieve them — are too often taking a back seat.

The gulf between what voters are focused on and what Washington is talking most about seems as wide as the anger is deep in America, and that helps explain why people are so turned off, so furious at politicians of any stripe.

Only 22 percent of Americans — less than at any previous point in Obama's presidency — approve of Congress, the new AP-GfK poll shows. Just over half like what Obama's doing. Frustration is directed at both Republicans and Democrats. Half of all people say they want to fire their congressman.

Unemployment and the economy are among the issues Americans are most concerned about; health care trails behind those issues as well as terrorism and the federal budget deficit.

Despite promises to do things differently, Democrats and Republicans alike are engaged in the politics of usual, maneuvering for election-year advantage. And that's exactly what their constituents say they don't want. People are tired of the games. And why wouldn't they be?

Nearly 10 percent of Americans don't have jobs, and the prospects for finding them anytime soon are bleak. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that unemployment rose in 30 states in January, evidence that jobs remain scarce in most regions of the country. From coast to coast, Americans are questioning whether anyone they've elected is on their side — and actually working for them.

Even voters who supported Obama and his Democrats have soured on Washington. That's a danger for the party in power as it looks to hang onto control of the House and Senate in November. Angry voters tend to reject the status quo; that's how Democrats rose to power in Congress in 2006 and Obama won the White House in 2008. Today, voters are still furious with Washington — if not more so. And now Democrats could be blamed.

Simply listen to voters, and you'll hear their priorities — and their frustrations — loud and clear.

"The jobs, the economy is a much bigger issue for this country than trying to push this health care bill through," says Republican John Campbell of Del Rio, Texas. He wants both Obama and Congress to shift the focus — and work with each other.

"There needs to be some bipartisanship," says Campbell, 52, a warden at a federal detention center.

College student Claire Hatton of Wellington, Ohio, seems jaded at age 19.

"It doesn't seem to me like a whole lot is getting done except politics in Washington," says this self-identified independent. Enough with the arguing, enough with the fighting, she adds. "They should be working together and trying to get more things accomplished to benefit everyone."

And Obama?

"He should be doing more of what he said he would be doing," Hatton says. "He's straying off of campaign promises."

Retired kindergarten teacher Ann Heffernan of Memphis, Tenn., who doesn't belong to a political party, also questions Washington's agenda.

"They should be trying harder to get jobs for people," says Heffernan, 84.

Congress, Obama — "they just seem to be working against each other, and I don't see either one of them making big progress," she says.

"There is such a polarity" in Congress, bemoans retiree Carl Cheney, a Democrat from Wellsville, Utah.

Is government working for him?

"Heavens no," Cheney, 76, says, and launches into a blistering critique.

"Their most important job they feel is to get re-elected, and they have no concern for the nation or the public" — or what matters most to voters. His advice to lawmakers: "Try to develop a little statesmanship instead of individual greed and interest in their jobs."

Democrat Benny Newman, 79, of Tulsa, Okla., recently lost his job in a local school district because of budget cuts.

He says neither Obama nor Congress is doing right: "Just bundle them in the same bag."

"They're spending too much money," he says, adding: "The economy is not well enough to support some of the things that they're doing."

Judging by what both Obama and Congress are wrestling with, he says: "I don't think either one of them is interested in the general public."

Or, more to the point, listening to it.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... wD9EC307O0