Obama Pissing Off Democrats Again?

Obama should invite his pal Andy Hounshell to the White House for a consultation

Obama, famous for his meetings, tête-à-têtes, dinners and consultations with Republicans, deigned to meet with Democratic senators for almost an hour and a half Tuesday. The next day he went running back to the Republicans as fast as he could, promising he wants to cut entitlements. At the meeting with Democratic senators, progressives had plenty of pointed questions for him about the promises he and Biden have made to the ravenous, anti-family right-wingers predicated on devastating what's left of the social safety net and implementing the failed European-style Austerity agenda instead of the growth proposals Democrats-- inside and outside of Congress-- think is the way to address the economic calamities Republican policies have caused.

Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) pushed him but Obama refused to back away from the Austerity path he and the GOP have worked out. He feels he has enough New Dems and Blue Dogs on board to help Boehner and Cantor pass a Grand Bargain that stabs working families in the back on behalf of the political donor class. Harry Reid seemed to warn (to me, unconvincingly, I'm afraid) that just because Obama and Biden are offering toxic compromises to the right-wing Austerity agenda, it doesn't bind Democrats in Congress. "The president in the past, in personal negotiations with Boehner, Biden with personal negotiations with Cantor, have indicated they'd be willing to do certain things. The Republicans never get further than that. They take these things that are talked about in abstract and say that's what we've agreed to. We haven't agreed to any of that." Wednesday's meeting with House Republicans sounds like exactly what progressives have been fearing.

House Republicans emerged from a rare meeting with Obama on Wednesday afternoon saying he assured them he was serious about cutting programs like Social Security and Medicare in order to reduce the long-term deficit.

“It was a really great first step,” said Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI). “He did express a willingness to give on entitlements.”

“He focused a lot on entitlements,” said Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL).

Other Republicans expressed similar sentiments to reporters as they exited the meeting. Some voiced frustration at his insistence that safety net cuts be paired with new tax revenues-- that central division remains, as senior Republicans still aren’t willing to go there. Yet others signaled that they did not trust him to follow through.

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and House Budget Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) said they still oppose new revenues but the president’s face-to-face exchange was important.

“We had a very frank and candid exchange of ideas, and frankly I think it was productive,” Boehner told reporters. “I hope that these kinds of discussions can continue. Even though we have very real differences, our job is to find common ground to do the work the American people sent us here to do.”

The two major entitlement reforms Obama has publicly proposed so far include cutting future Social Security benefits-- a reform known as Chained CPI-- and making higher income Americans pay a bigger share of their Medicare premiums.

“He wanted us to believe he’s serious” about being willing to scale back the safety net, said Ribble. “There was nothing in there to make me believe he wasn’t.”

Today he'll be meeting with House Democrats. I hope Alan Grayson and some of the others who are co-sponsoring H.R. 900 and have signed the Grayson-Takano letter will have an opportunity to straighten Obama out. Leading up to Obama's visit, Congressman Grayson was on Take Action News with David Shuster to talk about his line-in-the-sand "No Cuts" approach. When Shuster asked him if the Democratic leadership is pressuring him to tone it down, he said that they're not, not at all, not ever.

The other side is constantly trying to pound Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid into oblivion. If you speak to them-- and you usually have to speak to them "off the record" to get an honest answer-- but if you speak to them, many of the Republicans in the House will tell you that they regard these programs as unconstitutional. They think the government should be doing nothing but defending the country, and anything beyond that is just-- in their view-- unconstitutional and deeply wrong. If you go all the way back to the time of the creation of Social Security, you can find really horrible public statements by Herbert Hoover, among other people, saying that Social Security will undermine the "moral fiber" of the country, and so on and so forth. It's been that way for eighty years; it's not going to change anytime soon. We have to stand up to them. There are some things you just can't compromise on. You have to stand for something. And I think Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are three magnificent programs, created by Democrats, which have done so much good in this country, to lift the poor, the sick, and the elderly, out of poverty in this country. And to create a middle class that has some degree of safety, and can actually enjoy life. These are programs worth defending against the other side's attacks. There's no compromise between life and death. There's no compromise between right and wrong. These programs are about life and death. They are about right and wrong.

Shuster then asked about ConservaDems like Ed Rendell, a shill for Fix the Debt, pushing the Austerity program on unsuspecting Democrats (like MSNBC viewers). "Is that a problem?" asked Shuster. "Yes," Grayson answered, "but the deeper problem is that our people-- the people who count on us-- our people, whom we represent, who support us, who have knocked on doors for us, who make telephone calls for us, who contribute to our campaigns-- those people are starting to feel betrayed. It isn't expecting too much in expecting Democrats-- real Democrats, people who are elected with a 'DEM' next to their names, true-blue Democrats-- those people are going to stand up and protect the things that we need. You see that the Republicans don't have any hesitation defending multi-national corporations, defending millionaires and billionaires, and doing it right up to the hilt, according to party line. Why can't we help and represent and be loyal to the people in need on our side, who are depending on us for some scrap of dignity in their lives?"

Amen.

We established a page for to encourage Democrats like Grayson willing to stand up against corporate interests on behalf of working families-- no matter who that means taking on. Please take a look.