Good Advice from President Clinton to President Obama (mostly)

Filed in National by on July 5, 2011

Don’t Blink.

Asked what the administration could do if GOP leaders hold to that posture, Clinton replied: “First the White House could blink. I hope that won’t happen. I don’t think they should blink.”

If Republicans will not accept revenues in a package to lift the debt ceiling by August 2, Clinton said, Obama should pursue a short-term agreement based on the spending reductions both sides have already accepted.

“There are some spending cuts they agree on …and he can take those and [get] an extension of the debt ceiling for six or eight months,” Clinton said.

Except, I don’t think that they should do a mini-deal. If the negotiators have gotten a trillion or so in cuts, Democrats have already done alot of compromising. Time for the Republicans to step up. (Lots of media are getting this wrong, BTW — doing the false equivalence thing that *both* Democrats and Republicans are being intransigent. Those $1 trillion or so in agreed cuts puts the lie to the intransigence of Democrats thing.) Kicking this can down the road means that this silly drama replays in 6 or eight months. We already know that republicans are not going to be working on governing from now until 2012. Why would they pay more attention to the debt ceiling in 6 or 8 months.

And I also think Clinton is wrong about the priority of debt reduction right now anyway, so he should save his critique of not embracing the cat food commission. Especially since the budget Obama sent up actually *does* embrace some of it.

Tags: , , ,

About the Author ()

"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm

Comments (6)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. puck says:
    July 5, 2011 at 9:10 am

    I guess this is the closest we are going to get to a Clinton apology for going around telling us all to blink on the public option, and for supporting December’s tax cut cave-in.

    If Obama couldn’t stand up to a handful of Senators on tax cuts in December, how is he going to stand up to a GOP House majority in July?

    I think Obama was warned that his reputation for not fighting was going to hurt him with the base, so he is putting on a show of a fight before the cave-in.

    The excuse for a cave-in is much more credible now than it was in December.

  2. donviti says:
    July 5, 2011 at 2:44 pm

    What Puck said…

    I remember when I thought O wasn’t going to blink on tax cuts…until he did.

    I even remember when we had a majority in both houses and couldn’t get a decent health care bill passed.

    he’ll cave and you Cassie, will tell us why he had too and why it was good that he did.

    I could be wrong of course…and IF I am, i will eat my crowe

  3. cassandra m says:
    July 5, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    From the President’s comments today:

    Obama also voiced his opposition to the reports that some members of Congress favor a short-term increase in the debt ceiling before the August 2 deadline — but postponing the debate on the longer-term U.S. fiscal situation to after Congress’ summer recess.

    “I don’t share that view,” he said, warning that the American public does not want to see their elected officials avoid tough problems.

    Obama added that he is not in favor of taking the “path of least resistance” in the deficit talks.

  4. Truth Teller says:
    July 6, 2011 at 6:39 am

    Lets face the facts folks we elected a wimp

  5. puck says:
    July 6, 2011 at 7:19 am

    Obama’s position is, last I checked, 83% spending cuts, and 17% new revenue. Any previous Republican Congress would consider this a win.

  6. cassandra m says:
    July 6, 2011 at 7:51 am

    And the Republicans asked for a 85:15 ratio back in March, so the GOP is in the business of rejecting their own deal.

«
»