Obama: GOP Ideology vs. Middle Class

06 January 2012 |permalink | email article

President Obama touched off an election-year firestorm with Congressional Republicans on Wednesday, defying their strong opposition to appoint Richard Cordray as director of the new consumer protection agency without Senate approval under the constitutional provision for making appointments when lawmakers are in recess. By any measure it was a new precedent and provocative first salvo in Obama’s reelection strategy. “I refuse to take “no” for an answer,” he said, adding that “a Senate minority puts party ideology ahead of the people we were elected to serve.” House Speaker John Boehner said the action would have “a devastating effort on checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution.” The Wall Street Journal called the appointment of Cordray and three others unconstitutional because the Senate was technical in session. Ronald Reagan made 240 recess appointments, George W. Bush 171, Bill Clinton 140, and Obama’s first term 28. 

Jerry Brown Slashes Welfare

On Thursday the governor announced his January budget plan—proposed slashing almost $1.4 billion in welfare and child aid care for the poor while holding voters liable for $5 billion in education funding with a November tax measure. Brown will ask voters to pass a $6.9 billion ballot measure that raises taxes on sales and income starting with single filers earning $250,000 a year. “With the tax program, we will eliminate the budget deficit finally, after years of kicking the can down the road.” Sounds a lot like Boehner’s endlessly repeated Republican refrain. As a former Jesuit Brown may have to wrestle a little harder in the dark night of his soul over the astonishing welfare and child care aid cuts for the poor. 

Quotable

“Do we think we can get more than an eight-vote margin here in New Hampshire?”—A confident Mitt Romney joking about his margin of victory in the Granite State which as of today is 41 percent.

“Romney’s economic plan? Timid. Parts of it virtual identical to Obama’s failed policy. Timid won’t create jobs and timid certainty won’t defeat Barack Obama.”—An angry Newt Gingrich, launching the first of several TV attacks on Romney before the weekend debates in New Hampshire. They proclaim “I will be bold, just as Reagan was bold.”

“Is Santorum for real? The obstacles he faces—and why the establishment fears his culture-war conservatism.—Howard Kurtz, CNN.

“Shame for Rick Santorum that he doesn’t believe in cloning. He could use another version of himself in South Carolina.”—John Dickerson, Slate.

“The spotlight is blinding, and if you squint or stumble even lightly, it gets more intense.”—Dan Schnur, former GOP consultant who heads the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. 

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