Mitt Romney said last week that President Obama should stop talking about defeating terrorists and start talking about "important issues people care about," like the economy.
Apparently, Obama is thinking along the same lines.
With a polarized Congress already on the defensive, President Obama on Tuesday will outline a five-point "to do" list for lawmakers that packages job creation and mortgage relief ideas he has proposed before, administration officials say.
Mr. Obama will present the election-year list during a visit to a university science complex in Albany. The components of his challenge to Congress -- and to the Republican-led House in particular -- will be a feature of his appearances throughout the spring, aides said.
The agenda is not exactly sweeping, and even if the five-point "to do" list were passed in its entirety, the economic impact would be fairly modest. That said, they're perfectly reasonable proposals: (1) a tax credit for companies that move their operations to the U.S.; (2) making it easier for homeowners to refinance; (3) another new-hire tax credit for small businesses; (4) extending the Production Tax Credit and expanding tax credit to investments in clean energy manufacturing; and (5) the creation of a Veterans Job Corps.
Will Congress approve the list? Well, no, probably not. While these fairly non-controversial ideas might have been easy to pass in previous years, Republican filibusters and GOP control of the House probably makes any kind of economic legislation impossible. It's not even clear if Republican lawmakers want the economy to improve before the election.
Then why bother? I suspect the point is to show the president presenting mainstream economic ideas that would have traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support, while a do-nothing Republican Congress sits on its hands.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters yesterday that each lawmaker on Capitol Hill "has to explain to his or her constituents what they did while they were in Washington these last two years. Did they just say no? Did they just block every effort put forward to help the economy grow and create jobs? Or did they actually try to work constructively to get something done?"
If only those weren't rhetorical questions.
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If people congress to do something, then they'd better stop voting in a do-nothing congress.
Unfortunately most people think their own representative actually does something.
Mine does! (Look at the Congressional Record.) He is a reasonable, principled and practical man, and like so many Democrats, he understands that discussion and compromise should be part of the process.
But he is a member of the minority party, and the majority party does not believe in discussion and compromise, and so he has been blocked and stymied at pretty much every step.
I live in L.A.(that's Lower Alabama). My congressmen do some things. I really wish they would quit. I keep trying to vote them out of office but somehow they're still there.
I sent a letter to Jeff Sessions once about something that I felt was important and asked him to vote against it. Apparently a lot of others did the same thing because I got a letter back from him. It was like a form letter with blanks to fill in. It told me in doublespeak why I'm wrong and why he's not listening to me.
It was weird.
Boehner is my congressman and I campaign and vote against him as much as I can. He is SUCH an embarassment!
The President is much more forgiving than I! My short list would read go @!$%# yourselves. Albeit a "Cheney", like I said, the POTUS is much more forgiving than I!
I happen to like my Congress-Critter! Fortunately, he is not challenged in today's primary in Indiana so I could get a repuke ballot.
I was waiting in line when the polls opened at 6 this morning and was the first person to vote in my precinct. I got my republican ballot and stepped behind the screen. I looked thru the entire ballot, and then I looked thru it again, and then I looked even more closely thru it. I still was unable to find the place to mark my choice of to hell with all of them.
So, I voted
for Ron Paulagainst Mittens RMoney and I votedfor the teabaggeragainst Dick Lugar and I left the rest of the choices unmarked.I do like my Congress-Critter. He is probably the only real democrat holding national office from the state of
Mississippi of the MidwestIndiana. Andre Carson has yet to prove that he can hold a real candle to that of his sainted grandmother Julie Carson who he followed in office, but he holds promise. Plus, us old white progressives kind of like being able to tell our racist and teabagger friends that we are proud to have a black, muslim, progressive democrat as our Congress-Critter.As far as this posting goes, it does not deserve comment. Just another political stunt from Obama who seems to be running as a populist after 3 1/2 years during which he chose to not govern as such. While I will work feverishly to defeat RMoney, it is not because of overwhelming enthusiasm with how Obama has governed.
Mississippi of the Midwest makes me laugh every time!
You might have been first, but you've got company in the race for the "Mississippi of the Midwest" moniker! Ohio, Michigan, and my fair state of Wisconsin are all doing their best to achieve the same level as their neighbor from way down the stream.
The hard part, let alone getting Congress off their butts, will be the trouble presented by big business and finance that have oppositions to each item.
You also forgot about the people that keep voting against their (& our) best interests.
Consider this.... Obama has done so much unilaterally through the executive branch, why won't he just do somethings similar through agencies? A few rules tweaks and executive decrees should work for the majority of that list.
The real problem is that with redistricting creating tons of safe seats (hello, Michelle Bachmann) and Citizens United providing tons of cash, members of Congress don't have to care about public opinion any more. Rachel makes the point in her book that Reagan could talk over the heads of Congress directly to the American people and get people to agree that Grenada was a great success (for instance) and hey, let's increase the defense budget even more. Obama has a large percentage of the people on his side, but the Republicans don't care and don't have to care.
Sad Old Vet - Im with you, and I am only middle aged (48). Thinking that until this system is fixed, I will only vote for local elections where my voice seems to be a tad bit louder.
Romney has not presented one single idea as to how he would "turn the economy around" yet he can sit on his cardboard hands finding fault with President Obama because he has no idea what he is doing. Romney complains about something that has already been done. Where has he been while our President spoke about a jobs bill act! Where was he when Obama helped the auto industry! Oh yes Now I remember he was against those things because he is a Republican, how pathetic and now attempt to take credit does he think we are all as dumb as he is? God this pisses me off!
Unfortunately Romney has become the latest Kochsucker.
The current Speaker of the House, and I use that term in a minimal sense, cannot deliver any legislation create jobs, then he is the failure not the President. When the Senate minority filibusters every piece of legislation, the minotity leader is the failure, not the President. When republican't leadership openly states that their only goal is to ensure failure, guess what the country witll fail, and the resposiblilty for the failure rests on their narrow shoulders.
Could not be a more accurate representation of Congress and why republican conservative "values" are the cause of failure in the United States.
The speaker of the house Boehner is NOT a leader. He is led and they tell him what to do and what to say. He is not good at his job nor is he intelligent. I am sorry for him and he needs to resign as should all republicans in congress and put in new sharp thinkers who care about their country and the poor/middle class. There are some good repubs out there-but they aren't in congress. This is the worst congress ever. Dems can't get them to agree/compromise on anything. They know only one word and that is no. Remember their meeting on day one of Obama's election - led by Gingrich - they decided to say no to everything. God get into their hearts and minds and let them work for us. Amen.
If this do nothing Congress just sits on their hands and does, nothing here is my list for them to do and it has only one thing for them to do RESIGN IMMEDIATELY!!! . If they can't do the job that they was elected to do pack their bags and go home.
Gas prices are falling, might be below two bucks by election time. Must be a liberal conspiracy to get President Obama re-elected.
Ah yes! That liberal conspiracy amongst the oil companies and the wall street
gamblers market manipulatorshedge fund managers.I liked your post Southhampton, because I assume you are being facetious. If not...I am speechless.
A tax credit for companies that move their operations to the U.S.? How about a 150% tax on every job outsourced? Oh - and make it retroactive to, say, 2005. This will get those jobs back here in a hurry, and it won't cost us a dime in tax subsidies to corporations who clearly don't deserve them.
The House is not going to do anything at this time. However, after the party conventions if public opinion polls show Republicans in deep trouble for elections, the House may try to cut a deal with the Dems to pass legislation. The question is how hard of a deal the Dems can strike on a variety of issues and whether the Senate will go along. Obama can keep slamming the Republicans until they cry uncle, especially if opinion polls reflect that Republicans are going to lose a lot of seats in the House and Senate. The big issue that will come up during the elections is the fate of the Bush tax cuts. If the Republicans do not control both chambers, those tax cuts are the Dem bargaining chip because the Republicans will be unable to renew the cuts by reconciliation which will be the only hope for Republicans who will not have 60 votes in the Senate.
The tax cuts will be decided during the lame duck session, where the houses are still split. Unfortunately, PBO will be forced to extend
@morrigan-1568233 "and the majority party does not believe in discussion and compromise"
Morrigan, the Democratic Party will discuss anything. We won't cut unemployment and throw people to the wolves; we won't cut Social Security for our Seniors; and we won't betray the trust of the American People because a few wing nuts believe in the philosophy of Ayn Rand.
The Tea Party ran on the promise of Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, but somehow everything they've sent to the Senate involved slashing social programs and hurting the people that really need help.
They've done nothing else but block any attempt to straighten out the mess we're in, and the American people have figured that out: the approval of Congress is down to 9%, a historical low.
We need to go back to the balanced budget we had in 1999. That means reducing the Military by half, to put it back to 2001 levels. We need to let the Bush Tax Cuts lapse for those making more than $250,000 per year, so we can bring in the revenue to pay down the Debt Bush ran up.
I suggest that you research how much the Debt was under Reagan, then H.W. Bush, then Clinton, and Bush II.
You'll find that 82% of the Debt was run up by Republican Presidents spending like drunken sailors. Clinton cut the spending, and balanced the Budget, but Bush blew that up again.
Reagan tripled the Debt. H.W. Bush doubled THAT. And Bush II took a Surplus, threw it away, and spent Trillions on wars of invasion.
I think perhaps, if you're fiscally conservative, you've been voting for the wrong Party.
I think in the case morrigan was talking about, the House (and its majority GOP members) would be the body being spoken of.
I just can't understand why the republicans wouldn't want to compromise with the president's proposals and economic ideas, after all if they work, these shameless and pharisaic loud parrots claim all the credit. I mean look at Mitt Romney, he is the one now claiming to have magically saved the auto industry, and sadly like usual people actually believe all this b.s.
The main thing I see is a list of temporary tax credits and the fact is that temporary tax breaks are not effective economic policy. http://usat.ly/wodUYI
The main reason is that temporary tax breaks never end up being temporary; just look at the Bush-Obama tax cuts or the extension of the temporary pay roll tax cut. http://eng.am/H5m9A4
As Scott Hodge, president of the Tax Foundation, points out, ‘“Once these things get built in, cooked in to the system, they're awfully difficult to get rid of.’" http://usat.ly/wodUYI
Creating jobs is important while an economy is struggling, but doing so with a patchwork quilt of revenue-depleting temporary tax breaks is not a long term plan to fix our core problems.
"If I have to pull this Congress over... You"ll Be Sorry!"
Haven't heard lately how that program to help home owners avoid foreclosure has been going. It was doing pretty poorly last year.