Gene Lyons: Time to Play Ball

[flpoljunkie]

April 13, 2011

Time to play ball
How Obama's seeming passivity has emboldened the right -- and made Republicans reckless

BY GENE LYONS

President Obama is seen in a television monitor as he outlines his fiscal policy during an address at George Washington University on Wednesday. By any rational standard, President Obama ought to have the Republicans exactly where he wants them in the upcoming budget fight. The public, as opposed to professional pundits, largely sided with the White House during last week's made-for-TV government shutdown melodrama.

Overall, according to a CNN poll, 58 percent of Americans favored the FY2011 budget compromise while 38 percent disapproved. Two-thirds of Democrats and 56 percent of independents favored the deal, while a plurality of Republicans think their party leaders gave away too much. That would be the high-chair faction of the Tea Party, an impassioned minority holding their breath until they turn blue.

Did Obama look weak by urging compromise? No, he looked reasonable. I'm with Kevin Drum on this. Substantively, the president surely understands that sharp cuts in government spending during a recession hurt job growth. However, the economy's moving again, the public's spooked about budget deficits, and there's a far more significant battle coming. For Obama, bringing Democrats and Republicans to the White House to reason together was the tactical equivalent of an intentional walk in baseball. Drum: "He's agreed to cuts but also shown that he'll fight against crazy cuts, and he thinks that will help him take the high ground when he unveils his own long-term deficit program."

Continuing the baseball metaphor, the hitter Obama wants to pitch to would-be Rep. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican with the funeral director's demeanor and the zeal of an Ayn Rand enthusiast. Reduced to a slogan, Ryan's ballyhooed plan is "Back to the 19th century": $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for millionaires and corporations, huge cuts in Social Security, Medicaid and food stamps, while privatizing Medicare.

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http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/13/obama_lyons/index.html