Obama revealed: A moderate Republican

[Cali_Democrat]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-revealed-a-moderate-republican/2011/04/25/AFPrGfkE_story.html

Obama revealed: A moderate Republican
By Ezra Klein, Monday, April 25, 9:51 PM

America is mired in three wars. The past decade was the hottest on record. Unemployment remains stuck near 9 percent, and there’s a small, albeit real, possibility that the U.S. government will default on its debt. So what’s dominating the news? A reality-television star who can’t persuade anyone that his hair is real is alleging that the president of the United States was born in Kenya.

Perhaps this is just the logical endpoint of two years spent arguing over what Barack Obama is — or isn’t. Muslim. Socialist. Marxist. Anti-colonialist. Racial healer. We’ve obsessed over every answer except the right one: President Obama, if you look closely at his positions, is a moderate Republican of the early 1990s. And the Republican Party he’s facing has abandoned many of its best ideas in its effort to oppose him.

If you put aside the emergency measures required by the financial crisis, three major policy ideas have dominated American politics in recent years: a plan that uses an individual mandate and tax subsidies to achieve near-universal health care; a cap-and-trade plan that attempts to raise the prices of environmental pollutants to better account for their costs; and bringing tax rates up from their Bush-era lows as part of a bid to reduce the deficit. In each case, the position that Obama and the Democrats have staked out is the very position that moderate Republicans have staked out before.

Read more...http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-revealed-a-moderate-republican/2011/04/25/AFPrGfkE_story.html

This piece shows how far right we've shifted as a country. Make no mistake about it, Republicans will keep shifting further to the right. It's what they do.

[ProSense]

1. Moderate Republican?

What the hell is that? Is this the same as "Nixon was a liberal"?

Olympia Snowe? Republicans have always claimed to support things before they vote against them. The notion that Bob Dole or any Republican since the 1980s was a moderate is silly. They present plans only in opposition to Democratic proposals, position them as similar, but have no real interest in supporting them.

"President Obama, if you look closely at his positions, is a moderate Republican of the early 1990s. And the Republican Party he’s facing has abandoned many of its best ideas in its effort to oppose him."

What was Clinton, a RW Republican?

Clinton's health care plan certainly contained elements of Nixon's plan and the 1993 Republican plan.

<...>

The real reason insurers want the GOP leading Congress again is not to repeal “Obamacare,” but to try to gut some of the provisions of the law that protect consumers from the abuses of the industry, such as refusing to cover kids with preexisting conditions, canceling policyholders’ coverage when they get sick, and setting annual and lifetime limits on how much they’ll pay for medical care. Insurers also hate the provision that requires them to spend at least 80 percent of premium revenues on medical care, as well as the one that calls for eliminating the billions of dollars that the government has been overpaying them for years to participate in private Medicare plans. (Be on the lookout for a death panel–like fearmongering campaign to scare people into thinking, erroneously, that Granny and Pawpaw will lose their government health care if Congress doesn’t restore those “cuts” to Medicare.)

link

There are aspects of the current health care law that were not part of any of those proposals.

[Cali_Democrat]

11. The article isn't so much about Obama as it is about the Republicans...

...and their constant rightward shift.

If Republicans and certain US voters think Obama is some liberal Dem, they're only fooling themselves. Many of the positions currently supported by Obama were, in fact, Republican positions in the past. It just shows you how conservative they've become.

[ProSense]

20. Ezra specifically stated

"a moderate Republican of the early 1990s," and that's absurd.

Who were the moderate Republicans of the 1990s?

Alan Simpson, who was a member of Clinton's deficit commission?

Phil Gramm, who repealed FDR-era financial regulations?

Newt Gingrich, who shut down the government?

The other members of the Congressional Republican ledership:

Dick Armey?

Trent Lott?

Tom DeLay?

Bob Dole?


Obama is...

Bush

Republican lite

a moderate Republicans of the 1990s

to the right of Nixon

to the right of Reagan

Carter...malaise!!!

Clinton

What does it all mean?

The labels are as absurd as the arguments.

[Cali_Democrat]

24. Let's have a look at some of Obama's policy positions

From the article....

- "a plan that uses an individual mandate and tax subsidies to achieve near-universal health care"

-"cap-and-trade plan that attempts to raise the prices of environmental pollutants to better account for their costs"

- "bringing tax rates up from their Bush-era lows as part of a bid to reduce the deficit"


ALL policy positions proposed by Republicans in the 1990's.

[ProSense]

26. Oh brother

From the article....

- "a plan that uses an individual mandate and tax subsidies to achieve near-universal health care" (so did Clinton in the 1990s)

-"cap-and-trade plan that attempts to raise the prices of environmental pollutants to better account for their costs" (Democrats in the 1980s. Remember acid rain?)

- "bringing tax rates up from their Bush-era lows as part of a bid to reduce the deficit" (Huh? Bush-era tax rates were in effect in the 1990s?)

The argument is nonsense. Republicans almost always propose policies as counters to Democratic policies, framining them as their own, but with their own twist to screw Americans.

[Cali_Democrat]

27. Yes...and it shows what hypoctrits Republicans are.

Obama stakes out some of the same positions that they previously supported and now they are against them. Individual mandates, tax subsidies for healthcare, tax increases and cap-and-trade.

The Republicans continue to move to the right. They are becoming more and more radical.

[Kdillard]

17. Seriously Obama gets called so many names I don't even bother getting upset anymore. People

will just put whatever label they want on him true or not.

[Exilednight]

22. Yeah, especiall labels that don't fit like liberal or progressive. n/t

[vi5]

2. President Palin!

I'm really getting so sick of the fucking excuses being doled our for how much ground we've ceded to the hard right in this country, thanks to a completely ineffective Democratic leadership at best, and complicit, willing accomplices at worst.

It's seriously going to be all I can do over the next year to just throw away and delete all the Democratic party solicitations for support and money that are sure to be arriving, rather than tearing them apart or burning them all in a giant rage filled bonfire.

If I had the time or thought it would do a single goddamned bit of good I'd write back a nasty, hate filled response to each one. But I'm no masochist and wouldn't bother wasting my time.

[PDittie]

3. Rather, it appears

... that as Democrats moved to the right to pick up Republican votes, Republicans moved to the right to oppose Democratic proposals.

Which leaves a lot of empty space on the left.

[Cali_Democrat]

12. The open space on the left is as large as the Pacific Ocean. n/t

[elocs]

4. Maybe he could run against himself, except the GOP would never nominate a moderate Republican. n/t

[nichomachus]

5. Moderate Republican?

Obama is to the right of Richard Nixon.

[bvar22]

7. Yeah, I question that "moderate" part too.

"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans.
I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans."
---Paul Wellstone

[indepat]

8. We have now witnessed right-of-center governance for more than 30 years

and the fruits of its irresponsible fiscal policy, a patently unfair tax policy, laizze-faire governance, and perpetual pre-emptive wars have fostered the makings of a banana-like republic in which tens of millions of Americans live a third-world-like existence. :patriot:

[harun]

9. It is going to keep going farther and farther right. I am to the point of figuring out how to

survive it, since elections don't change it.

[NYC Liberal]

25. Yeah, Obama is real far to the right of a racist, anti-Semitic, anti-gay, anti-choice,

criminal-but-for-a-pardon Republican.

[FrenchieCat]

6. That's what happens when the media is Extreme Right Republican owned......

That's also why Bill Clinton signed off on Glass Steagal, and the telecommunications
act of 1996, and why George Bush was handed the presidency in 2000,
and again in 2004, meanwhile Al Gore was totally ridiculed,
and why John Kerry couldn't tell a joke without being buried,
while his service to this country was questioned,
and President AWOL's service status when questioned (that one time) got a news anchor fired...

and why Palin was made into a serious Presidential contender for the past 2.4 years,
and the Tea Party can walk around with Obama depicted as Hitler while they shout "death panels",
and scream socialism to the enactment of some kind of health care policy,

and why Trump can rumor a Presidential candidacy while making statements
that Pres. Obama wasn't born here, when that's a proven lie.

We can think that we can sit on the sideline and "observe" and "critique" what is going on,
and make our statements that we see it happening....which makes us extra smart....

but when we allow ourselves to be distracted by what the media offers us most of the time,
what did we expect? The far Right have been going at it for a long time....
Along with their media and their think tanks while they infiltrate
local and state governments....meanwhile we wake up once a Democrat is
finally in the office....and somehow, that's who we get mad at,
and make it all of his fault.

So how ridiculous are we....as a whole, I mean?
I think quite a bit.

[Safetykitten]

10. He's no republican. He is an episode Democrat.

He reacts in episodes demanded by whoever seems to be giving him advice, presumably a group so removed from actual real American life they might as well be on another planet.

[craigmatic]

13. Come to think of it he and George H.W. Bush have a similar temprament. I wish he'd go left harder.

[NorthCarolina]

14. I think the term "Moderate" is a tad generous.

nt

[AzNick]

15. I have been saying this since Day 1

And Day 1 for me was the day he made that speech at the 2006 DNC.

Obama, in my mind, has never been a liberal or a progressive. He is completely in phase with the republicans of 20 years ago.

When the entire political landscape switched to the right, I did not, and found myself in phase with the democrats.

[quaker bill]

16. A species long extinct

I think not. He bears some similarities to this extinct species, but that could just be some accidental measure of sanity, because there is nothing sane about today's republicans.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

18. So, now we've gone from Obama=Bush

to Obama=Republican?

I AM on Democratic Underground, right?????? :crazy:

:wtf:

[Bobbie Jo]

21. What remains of it, that is. nt

[Proud Liberal Dem]

23. So, it would seem

Since Obama took office, I've been seriously thinking about leaving but this is probably still the best place to find (mildly) supportive and (partially) thoughtful discussions (hey, I guess it's still better than slugging it out with hate-spewing teabaggers on the Indianapolis Star online message board) about the news and political issues of the day.

Still, I would think that we would be spending most of our time attacking Republican teabaggers instead of President Obama. Guess not.

[TheBigotBasher]

19. " a moderate Republican of the early 1990s"

Very different to the title, given that moderate republicans are now so rare that they should actually become an officially protected species.

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mkultra]

35. local voice of the MSM

[dionysus]

29. this is a dupe.

[vaberella]

30. Keep pushing...If you believe this article then DADT is your fallacy.

Since Repubs of the 90s pushed that. But Obama did not and touched on DOMA. In actuality I can't find 1 position he's held that supports the trashy article you posted.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Cali_Democrat]

32. "In actuality I can't find 1 position he's held that supports the trashy article you posted"

- Individual mandate
- Cap-and-trade
- Tax hikes


Obama never supported these positions? I didn't think you got the point of the article. The article is about Republicans and their constant shifting to the right.

Perhaps you'd be more comfortable with Babylonsister's take....http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x660595

"Ezra Klein's unassailable observation, that the president more nearly resembles a moderate Republican of early 1990's vintage than a socialist Muslim born in Kenya, will probably be misinterpreted by a lot of progressives as an insult. But Klein's point is not to complain about Obama's policies, but to defend them as thoroughly mainstream. That is why Klein documents the support prominent Republicans displayed for an individual mandate in health care, Cap and Trade environmental policy, and sane tax policy, before those policies were offered by a Democrat. I think Klein is mostly interested in the possibility that Republicans are moving right, not out of any shift in principles, but out of a simple refusal to cooperate with a Democratic president. "

Again....you should actually READ the article before posting and trying to attack me. I find it very amusing nonetheless. Don't worry, you're not alone. As you can see in this thread, a lot of people took this as an insult against Obama when it was actually directed at Republicans. :hi:

[Mass]

33. OMG- Ezra Klein is discovering the Republicans are sliding more and more to the right?

I always thought he was overrated, but this post is a perfect example of why. There have been tens of articles written on this topic.

As for the title, pure BS. Moderate Republicans nowadays are people like Cantor or Ryan. So, by 2010 standards, Obama is a moderate Democrat. It is all that matters.(or Klein is a moderate Republican, as he more often than not agrees with the positions Obama supported).

[Renew Deal]

34. That article proves that people will say anything to get clicks.

The more flammable the better.