PBS Newshour's guests say Obama not serious about agency consolidation

[Amelia]

If Obama were serious about consolidating agencies to trim government power ... as opposed to just picking a fight with Congress to make himself look good for reelection ... then Obama would have done some prep work with people in his own party.

People in both parties and both houses of congress have objections to things like merging the nimble USTR into the Commerce Dept. bureaucracy, and of course leaders of the Senate are protective of their filibuster power.

Apparently Obama omitted such common sense things as asking senators how they would feel about the consequences if his political maneuver didn't work and he lost reelection and they had to deal with a Republican president's decisions and no filibuster.


This is another of many times that Obama has made some grand proclamation which is guaranteed to cause more tension ... tension he could have avoided if he had talked with more people first.

He wants friction.

 

[Charles_Main]

If Obama were serious about consolidating agencies to trim government power ... as opposed to just picking a fight with Congress to make himself look good for reelection ... then Obama would have done some prep work with people in his own party.

People in both parties and both houses of congress have objections to things like merging the nimble USTR into the Commerce Dept. bureaucracy, and of course leaders of the Senate are protective of their filibuster power.

Apparently Obama omitted such common sense things as asking senators how they would feel about the consequences if his political maneuver didn't work and he lost reelection and they had to deal with a Republican president's decisions and no filibuster.


This is another of many times that Obama has made some grand proclamation which is guaranteed to cause more tension ... tension he could have avoided if he had talked with more people first.

He wants friction.

Of course he does not mean it. He simply did some polls that told him Americans want simpler, smaller government, so he is paying Lip service to an Idea he will never embrace. The only downsizing Obama cares about is spending less on Defense, so he can expand government at every other turn.

 

[Amelia]

Four more years of this ?

 

[SFC Ollie]

Oh Hell No.........

And anyone with any intelligence level above that of a rock knows he is using this for politics....

 

[Trajan]

Oh Hell No.........

And anyone with any intelligence level above that of a rock knows he is using this for politics....

seems like it...he could have done this a year ago, 2 years ago...

 

[rightwinger]

Simple...

Why don't Republicans call his bluff?

 

[Sherry]

He's clearly pandering.

 

[Salt Jones]

Simple...

Why don't Republicans call his bluff?

Because they know that they are being set up and will be bested either way.

 

[bigtanker]

I don't know why people continue to drink the Obama kool-aid and don't openly question any of his motives. Why does the media continue to kiss the side that probably talks less crap than his mouth.

 

[Salt Jones]

I don't know why people continue to drink the Obama kool-aid and don't openly question any of his motives. Why does the media continue to kiss the side that probably talks less crap than his mouth.

What kool-aid? I was a black nationalist, communist, socialist, nazi decades before I ever heard the name Barack Obama. He's shaping the country just the way I like it.

 

[Amelia]

Simple...

Why don't Republicans call his bluff?

Please be more specific. What would constitute calling his bluff?

Setting things in motion to let the president hobble the USTR? Salt apparently understood your meaning but I would like to hear more.

 

[Dot Com]

Presidents usually accomplish these tasks in the first 2-years of their 2nd- term

 

[Amelia]

I don't know why people continue to drink the Obama kool-aid and don't openly question any of his motives. Why does the media continue to kiss the side that probably talks less crap than his mouth.

They aren't doing that ... or not to the extent that they did from 2004 through 2009.

That's why I specified that the observations had been made on PBS Newshour. When the Newshour panel sees Obama as caring more about scoring campaign points than about accomplishing his stated goal, that means a LOT of people see it and are questioning.

 

[Dot Com]

I don't know why people continue to drink the Obama kool-aid and don't openly question any of his motives. Why does the media continue to kiss the side that probably talks less crap than his mouth.

They aren't doing that ... or not to the extent that they did from 2004 through 2009.

That's why I specified that the observations had been made on PBS Newshour. When the Newshour panel sees Obama as caring more about scoring campaign points than about accomplishing his stated goal, that means a LOT of people see it and are questioning.

What panelists on PBS?

 

[Oddball]

Simple...

Why don't Republicans call his bluff?

A few with the guts to do so probably will.

Then they'll get called racists.

 

[Amelia]

I don't know why people continue to drink the Obama kool-aid and don't openly question any of his motives. Why does the media continue to kiss the side that probably talks less crap than his mouth.

They aren't doing that ... or not to the extent that they did from 2004 through 2009.

That's why I specified that the observations had been made on PBS Newshour. When the Newshour panel sees Obama as caring more about scoring campaign points than about accomplishing his stated goal, that means a LOT of people see it and are questioning.

What panelists on PBS?

Steven Dennis from Roll Call.

Hans Nichols from Bloomberg News.

 

[rightwinger]

Simple...

Why don't Republicans call his bluff?

Please be more specific. What would constitute calling his bluff?

Setting things in motion to let the president hobble the USTR? Salt apparently understood your meaning but I would like to hear more.

Simple....Go ahead and back his proposal. make him play his hand

 

[Amelia]

Simple...

Why don't Republicans call his bluff?

Please be more specific. What would constitute calling his bluff?

Setting things in motion to let the president hobble the USTR? Salt apparently understood your meaning but I would like to hear more.

Simple....Go ahead and back his proposal. make him play his hand

Back his proposal to do damage to an agency which is effective because it is NOT part of a "bureaucratic behemoth" (to borrow a term I heard on the show)?

You want the Congress to engage in the President's game of chicken? No matter how much damage it could do if he gets his way.

Very interesting.

Thanks.

 

[Amelia]

If Obama were a leader - a truly good president - then he would have talked to the congressional leadership most concerned with drastic changes he proposes. When his announcements bring swift bipartisan opposition it shows that he did not do the right prep work. He's just not serious about it. Or if he is serious about it, that makes the way he went about it all the more troublesome.

The chairmen and senior opposition members of the House of Representatives and Senate committees which regulate trade all reacted sceptically to the proposal. A joint statement by Dave Camp, Republican chairman of the House ways and means committee, and Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate finance committee, said: “Taking USTR, one of the most efficient agencies that is a model of how government can and should work, and making it just another corner of a new bureaucratic behemoth would hurt American exports and hinder American job creation.”

Obama revamp aims to cut trade bureaucracy - FT.com

 

[WatertheTree]

Four more years of this ?

No, its going to be Ron Paul. Ron Paul is the rage. Everyone wants to sound like him. The GOP candidates mimmick him and now the Socialist Dictator wants to imitate him.

No question as to who the real leader is.