After a handful of off-message comments from Bill Clinton, much of the political establishment has decided that the former president has become a thorn in the White House's side, taking positions that undercut the Democratic agenda. Most of this has been overblown, but it's a meme now, and the political establishment seems to like it.
So when Clinton appeared on CNBC's "Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo" yesterday, and raised the prospect of extending Bush-era tax rates, Republicans and reporters pounced.
They should have looked before they leaped. Here's what the former president told Bartiromo:
"[Policymakers] will probably have to put everything off until early next year. That's probably the best thing to do right now. But the Republicans don't want to do that unless he agrees to extend the tax cuts permanently, including for upper income people.
"And I don't think the president should do that. That's what they're fighting about. I don't have any problem with extending all of it now, including the current spending level. They're still pretty low, the government spending levels. But I think they look high because there's a recession. So the taxes look lower than they really would be if we had two and a half, 3% growth. And the spending is higher than it would be if we had two and a half, 3% growth because there are so many people getting food stamps, so many people getting unemployment, so many people are Medicaid.
"But the real issue is not whether they should be extended for another few months. The real issue is whether the price the Republican House will put on that extension is the permanent extension of the tax cuts, which I think is an error."
Many saw Clinton use the word "extend," and immediately assumed the former president was taking the Republicans' side in the upcoming fight. He wasn't.
Clinton was effectively taking the line of leaving existing policies in place temporarily -- a policy the Obama White House could certainly live with -- and rejecting Republican calls for permanent tax breaks and massive spending cuts. He even went on to say, "[T]he thing that cost jobs here has been the Congress's policies."
The former president didn't agree with the GOP in the interview; he did largely the opposite.
But since the interview caused such a stir, his spokesperson issued a statement, clarifying matters.
"Two questions have been raised regarding President Clinton's interview on CNBC today. First, on extending the Bush tax cuts, as President Clinton has said many times before, he supported extending all of the cuts in 2010 as part of the budget agreement, but does not believe the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans should be extended again. In the interview, he simply said that he doubted that a long-term agreement on spending cuts and revenues would be reached until after the election.
"Second, on the current condition of the economy, he said at the top of the interview that the main goal for those in Washington was "to keep the expansion going." Later, in the interview, he said government spending levels were higher and revenues were lower than they would normally be because there was a recession and we're still living with the aftermath of it. It's obvious since we've had 4.3 million new private sector jobs in the last 27 months that we're not in a recession, even though we'd all like growth to be higher."
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Been thinking about the problems with Political Psychopaths. Throughout our whole history, we have been plagued with Political Psychopaths such as Stalin, Hitler, Napoleon, Julius Caesar, etc where they have caused despair, destruction and death in the world. These peoples goals were not to care or have concern about the welfare of other people, except to get their kicks out of being brutal and/or killing other people as they craved wealth, control, and power over others. And there is the very issue that some businessmen and politicians could be really Political Psychopaths, since in their everyday activities they are really just doing things for their own selfish interests and getting satisfaction and pleasure at the expense of others. Bush Junior as a businessman was never successful, but kept making huge amounts of money like a con man. Chenney as a businessman drove the company into the ground, but kept accumulating wealth, control and power at the expense of others. Bush and Chenney were instrumental in causing two wars with such brutality and death as they had no concern about the welfare of anybody. In addition, their very policies show how they have done nothing but looked to destroy our very Democracy. Romney assaults a teen by using others and accumulates wealth, power and control over people at the expense of others. And now we have Romney saying it should be only businessmen who should be in political office. How insane is that, since it would be the worst thing that could ever happen. These people do not have any concern over the welfare of others, except perhaps showing signs that they could be Political Psychopaths. And there is one question out of this, has anybody done a Psychological profile on these people as a precaution?
We do not live in a "democracy".....
The USA is a constitutional representative government.
Maybe maddcow with her PHD can explian it to you.
Typical of republicans take the truth, put their spin on it and now it is a lie....
Got any proof to that????
You know, in this case it's not (just) the Republicans. In their rush to seem 'relevant' the MEDIA is jumping on 'is' again. They don't listen for the answers to their 'questions'. They have already written their headlines for EVERYTHING. There is no 'news' anymore. There is only what the 'journalists' have decided they want us to hear.
Hey maddcow don't you wish you had the moxie Maria dose..
Now you are going to hot clip the interview to your best advantage...
Maria Bartiromo packs a lot of weight, she gets the interviews people like maddcow only dream about.
hey stupidata,
see that "by Steve Benen" at the top of the page. how bout addressing the writer.....
And who's blog & TV show is this on???
maddcow, ed can-0-schlitz, lawrance Of' stupidity, chris hayseed, all are done with.
Their TV shows will all be a bad memory in 6 months.
As usual the GOP spin, prevaricate, and move the little ball under the cup you're not looking at because of all the distraction! Flim-flam artists that's what they do....
So we need to temporarily extend the tax cuts so they can create jobs , just like they never did the last 10 years ...Got it ...Then we can watch obama argue with the gop about cutting the budget , i e food stamps that represent 1% of the budget , for the next 4 years , all while signing off on over bloated military spending that is not PAID FOR...Without one peep from anyone in the dem party ....
Clinton could have torn the hate filled skank Maria Bartiromo up one side and down the other by saying we are going to end the tax cuts , balance the budget , and that will create jobs ...Which is exactly what your stupid gop ass has been cackling about the last 3 years .....When your not calling obama an anti capitalist commey any way ...
But that would require some balls , which the dems have cut off for Maria Bartiromo and her wall st boss's ....
The most sensible thing Congress can do is reform the tax code according to the guidelines of the Bowles-Simpson plan. By doing this, Republicans will be able to have their cake and Democrats can eat it too.
While Bowles-Simpson tax reform would make the Bush tax cuts permanent (which Republicans want), it would also raise revenue through the tax code to help pay down the deficit (which Democrats want). http://bit.ly/IMk4M0
The Democratic party assertion that Republicans are guilty of "spin" rings so hollow. We all have our own narratives and are all guilty of so called spin. It's part of the political process. For example, Ms. Maddow herself devoted considerable coverage last evening to a minor, local GOP primary candidate for state office who is a "birther". Were any other big stories going on last evening?
Oh yes, the rout of the Barrett in Wisconsin. And other MSNBC pundits have helpfully informed us today that Obama was the big winner last night in Wisconsin. That is spin if ever I've heard it.
Spin and interpretation are just a part of the game, and the deliberative process on the whole. Clinton is a master "clarifier" and triangulator and he once again stepped into a situation where he could ply that tradecraft.
Maybe, just maybe, we can stop looking at the issue as black and white and partisans from both sides of the aisle will drop their dogmatic stances and actually just sit down, negotiate and compromise. We are about to fall into a financial abyss and whether it's one side that won't even consider evaluating the current structure of social security or the other side signing anti-tax pledges, we can no longer afford to keep any options off the table.
I applaud President Clinton from deviating from the party line ... now if more of our elected officials on both sides of the aisle will do the same, we'll be better off for it.