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We Just Witnessed the Most Important Day in Politics All Year
We Just Witnessed the Most Important Day in Politics All Year
12/12/14
...But the narrow passage Thursday night of a big spending bill in the House of Representatives brought everything to the surface, even though the risk of a government shutdown was near zero.
Here are six things we learned from the raucous debate over the omnibus.
Elizabeth Warren is a bigger powerhouse than we thought.
That the omnibus was in any danger of failing at all was almost entirely attributable to Warren’s influence. Her mastery of the media is well understood, but she also demonstrated an ability to sway House members that no other Democratic senator has evinced....
Democrats are substantively divided.
Once Obama laid down his cards, Warren’s strategy became untenable. With the White House on board for the omnibus, Warren and her allies were essentially hoping to blow up a done deal, and would have been blamed for an ensuing shutdown. But that didn’t mean Democrats abandoned their objections to the bill itself. They overwhelmingly voted against final passage. We learned that there is a large contingent of House Democrats willing to go to battle against Republicans and the White House if they cut bad deals.
Republicans mostly agree on one thing....
Obama’s priorities are clearer.
...If Republicans had tried to tack something genuinely modest, like a repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s medical device tax, on to the omnibus, Obama would probably have threatened to veto it. He is not nearly as wedded to comparably marginal provisions of his Wall Street reform bill.
Democrats will thus have a hard time playing populist.
....But close isn’t really good enough. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have paid lip service to the idea that Democrats will use their perches in the minority to expose GOP coziness with Wall Street and prevent them from handing big financial institutions goodies like this. But they can’t succeed unless they know Obama has their back. Instead, he’s shown a willingness to deal on financial regulation that he hasn’t shown on issues like health care, deportation policy, and clean air rules. ...
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120545/elizabeth-warren-vs-barack-obama-cromnibus-vote-exposes-faultlines
12/12/14
...But the narrow passage Thursday night of a big spending bill in the House of Representatives brought everything to the surface, even though the risk of a government shutdown was near zero.
Here are six things we learned from the raucous debate over the omnibus.
Elizabeth Warren is a bigger powerhouse than we thought.
That the omnibus was in any danger of failing at all was almost entirely attributable to Warren’s influence. Her mastery of the media is well understood, but she also demonstrated an ability to sway House members that no other Democratic senator has evinced....
Democrats are substantively divided.
Once Obama laid down his cards, Warren’s strategy became untenable. With the White House on board for the omnibus, Warren and her allies were essentially hoping to blow up a done deal, and would have been blamed for an ensuing shutdown. But that didn’t mean Democrats abandoned their objections to the bill itself. They overwhelmingly voted against final passage. We learned that there is a large contingent of House Democrats willing to go to battle against Republicans and the White House if they cut bad deals.
Republicans mostly agree on one thing....
Obama’s priorities are clearer.
...If Republicans had tried to tack something genuinely modest, like a repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s medical device tax, on to the omnibus, Obama would probably have threatened to veto it. He is not nearly as wedded to comparably marginal provisions of his Wall Street reform bill.
Democrats will thus have a hard time playing populist.
....But close isn’t really good enough. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have paid lip service to the idea that Democrats will use their perches in the minority to expose GOP coziness with Wall Street and prevent them from handing big financial institutions goodies like this. But they can’t succeed unless they know Obama has their back. Instead, he’s shown a willingness to deal on financial regulation that he hasn’t shown on issues like health care, deportation policy, and clean air rules. ...
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120545/elizabeth-warren-vs-barack-obama-cromnibus-vote-exposes-faultlines
21 replies
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[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]
