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Sunday, July 31, 2011

Comments Part 2

Tank Carson
We've goten to the point that the Right is writing revisionist history even before it supposedly occurs. The Stimulus was nearly 40% tax breaks... you *diots... and the actual stimulus dollars were not sufficient in terms of jump starting the Bush devastated economy. Obama had at least the honesty and moral conviction of putting the two unfunded wars back on the books, WHAT... no one was going to notice that the wars had not been added to the ledger by the former Administration. Supply Side economics and the Bush tax cuts according to the CBO account for nearly over half of our deficit! The rich pay less taxes as a percentage of income then a secretary, single parent and a mother of two with an upside down mortgage working two jobs put food on the table! The super rich on the other hand pay no taxes and get corporate welfare! Why have a Republican President when the Democrat now in office will let the economic terrorist, extortionist and thugs we now call the Tea Party have their way and destroy the poor, seniors, working Americans and the Middle Class. A weak President and the Tea Party have become this Countries perfect storm!!!!!!!!!

the problem is, spending our way out of the hole hasnt worked, and will never work. if there would have been even a modest approch to REAL job creation from the start this hole episode of "crap reality" tv wouldnt be airing right now, instead billions if not trillions were stuck into union labor, and defence. Putting people in charge of running things they have had no exsperiance in doing (czars) sure hasnt helped one iota either.
we cant spend our way out of debt, and to add a tax hike isnt going to do it. The time has passed where there was $$ alloted for jobs that would put small buisness back on its feet, and get America back in the game of making real "honest" money.
Party lines aside, looking at the big picture, instead of it being one side or the other we need to favor, we need to look at making cuts, and real cuts. Cut the programes for those who are not entitled. Cut the programs that tend to claim to help Americans yet have failed in every way. cut the programs that enable men and women alike to get off their fat crack smoking a$$es, and look for work. Trust me, i know the work isnt out there, i know 1st hand. Yet doing such things would encourage people to elect the right people to change the course of this entitled nation to what it once was, a productive nation. A nation that worked hard to get what it wanted, and gave a hand to those who need it, not felt they were entitled.
Soon we will have 100,000+ troops coming home to no job, an empty market, and no place to start a life they put their life on the line for. This is action 3 yrs past due, no plans made, nothing. no hard work to get the nation and the economy back on its feet. no doing what it takes for basically anything other than personal agenda when there was more than ample oppertunity to have something, anything, done for the people of this nation, and it was pi$$ed away with bickering, needless spending, and ignorance to the real issues that have been dragging hard wroking Americans into this bottomless sinkhole.

Nightbreeeze what would you like me to respond to? Stoop to your level and hurl insults at you? If you would like be specific and I will communicate with you without the insults please.

Ron Paul:''What we have been asked to do here is support a budget that only cuts relative to the President’s proposed budget. It still maintains a $1 trillion budget deficit for FY 2012, and spends even more money over the next 10 years than the Paul Ryan budget which already passed the House'' The Paul Ryan budget is a much more serious piece of legislation as far as cutting the deficit.

Ron Paul has been left out of the budget discussion:We do need to cut spending, and by a significant amount. Going back to 2008 levels of spending is not enough. We need to cut back at least to where spending was a decade ago. A recent news article stated that we pay 35 percent more for our military today than we did 10 years ago, for the exact same capabilities. The same could be said for the rest of the government. Why has our budget doubled in 10 years? This country doesn't have double the population, or double the land area, or double anything that would require the federal government to grow by such an obscene amount.'' Ron Paul is right the numbers are obscene and out of control! Doubled in SIZE OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS!

Dont take BO to be so shallow. There is always a method to his madness - he did not become the first black Prez by accident. Keep tuned. Throw the right wing a bone for now. Expose them for what they are - let them chew on it for a bit. There will be ample time to put things on track and especially in a second term where re-election is not an issue. The problem is that over the last 50 years we have become too complacent - sheep like. Dumb Fat and Sassy! Everything happens in cycles and so far the establishments that 'control' have been able to smooth things over just enough so we don't feel these waves. Alas once in a lifetime you have to go through some major shocks which no one can control and that is upon us. The tough will survive, the whiners will go by the wayside or get more polarized. The fact remains that vested interest have modified the landscape substantially and there is very little even playing field left. The next battleground surely will be the have nots against the haves.

Question: Can the Democratic Party nominate someone other then Obama in 2012? At this point the Republicans should nominate him forPresident given that he is so effective in getting their policy passed into law!

I hear a lot of talking heads telling the American people that the President of the United States needs to provide a plan to Congress. Let me make one thing clear, the President is the Chief Executive of the Executive Branch, responsible for the enforcement of laws enacted by Congress. The President is not responsible for writing policy, although many have and had their policies introduced to the American people by Senators and Representatives alike it is not his role to legislate. Respublicans members of Congress say we spend too much and Democratic members of Congress say we "need to take care of Americans" in effect spending more.
It is the responsibility of Congress to find a way through all of this mess and give the President of the United States a bill that is measured in fairness through reasonable cuts, modification in programs to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse, reduces the tax burden on the poor and middle class, eliminate tax loop holes for big corporations and the rich, penalizes those corporations that move jobs out of the country for cheaper labor, and forces our country to live within it's means. However, if the Democratic Congress gives away the bank without anything in return - they will be voted out of office. If the Republicans think for a moment that they're in control - they're incredibly wrong. Republicans (TeaPublicans as well) have embarrassed this country in the eyes of the world. The have brought us to the brink of financial meltdown, they refuse to negotiate and they're definition of negotiation is way off the mark.
So here's what happens in 2012. Obama gets reelected. Those members of Congress that have been entrenched will be voted out. The TeaPublicans will for the most part cease to exist. Independents will see their biggest increase in numbers in both Chambers.
For the rest of you - our GDP is roughly at $16 Trillion annually. Our Federal Deficits stands at $14.5 Trillion. That's means there are some people out their that could be helping this country out. After all - it is your country and you get to live in it because of my service and the service of millions of other Americans who served and fought for this country. We sacrificed...how about you?

Obama is so far left that even with a rightward tilt, he still makes Chavez and Castro look conservative.

Now I realize that when the GOP said last November they were going to have a "laser-like focus on jobs", what they really meant was they were going to use a laser to destroy the few remaining American jobs.
We ALL have Palin's bullseye target on us now.

I don't agree with much of PeAcE LoVeR-2838047's post #3.3, but it's a good post and should be restored... we're getting ridiculous with our collapsing.
PeAcE LoVeR-2838047,
On the surface, it's hard to dispute that we have problems in all the areas you point to in your list. In fact, some of the solutions you give are a good start to discussions to resolve the very problems you state.
The problem is that you leave no flexibility. Putting an absolute cap on spending makes too many people nervous that we won't be able to react to emergencies or to respond to the unforeseen needs of the future. Personally, I fail to see why a simple requirement to include the funding mechanism in any legislation would not serve your purpose.
Enacting all your points is like locking your ideology into law and not allow any other views on the subject... it just can't happen.
Try testing your rules with how we got here... let's see... would Bush have been able to increase security 1000-fold as quickly as he did? Not without funding it with new taxes or targeted cuts of something else, right? How long would that take? Could it EVER pass with an absolute majority? How about Afghanistan? What about increments like a surge? How about Iraq? Emergency bailouts? No? No matter what? Stimulus? Only sometimes? Only when the TP supports the legislation?
With your rules we would have either NOT done all those things or allowed it under some emergency provision and had this debt anyway.
Too rigid. Too much theory and ideology. Too open to constitutional interpretation. Too procedurally cumbersome.
BTW, the health care legislation met all your rules since the CBO scored it as actually relieving debt... so how can you justify a specific exception for that?... follow the rules unless we don't like it? I'd like to see the language of THAT law.... lol.

RealAmericansFirst
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, it provided unskilled manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state and local governments. The CCC was designed to provide employment for young men in relief families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression while at the same time implementing a general natural resource conservation program in every state and territory. Maximum enrollment at any one time was 300,000; in nine years 2.5 million young men participated.
The CCC performed 300 possible types of work projects within ten approved general classifications:
  1. Structural Improvements: bridges, fire lookout towers, service buildings;
  2. Transportation: truck trails, minor roads, foot trails and airport landing fields;
  3. Erosion Control: check dams, terracing and vegetable covering;
  4. Flood Control: irrigation, drainage, dams, ditching, channel work, riprapping;
  5. Forest Culture: planting trees and shrubs, timber stand improvement, seed collection, nursery work;
  6. Forest Protection: fire prevention, fire pre-suppression, fire fighting, insect and disease control;
  7. Landscape and Recreation: public camp and picnic ground development, lake and pond site clearing and development;
  8. Range: stock driveways, elimination of predatory animals;
  9. Wildlife: stream improvement, fish stocking, food and cover planting;
  10. Miscellaneous: emergency work, surveys, mosquito control.[18]
Yes, let the government hire people to work on infrastructure projects, public lands and whatever else this country needs. But I suppose the GOP would prefer to send all that money to Iraq and Afghanistan so they can hire their people instead?

RealAmericansFirst
There is more money in the American economy today than there was in 2007. (See Corporate profits have recovered, but job market still depressed) The question is, where is it going? Not to workers any more.
Corporate tax revenues are down to 9% of all federal revenue, their lowest percentage in American history. 60% of American corporations don't pay any taxes at all.
And the top personal income tax rate is at its lowest level since the 1931.
But payroll taxes are now up to 40% of federal revenue.
U.S. Federal Tax Receipts - Fiscal Year 2010
And here's a great chart showing how America's tax burden has been shifted off to working people over time:
Sources of federal revenue, Fiscal 1950-2008
Corporations are recording record profits while sitting on over $1.9 TRILLION in cash. But NONE of it's going to workers:
Change in corporate profits and number of jobs in the U.S. since the start of the recession
BOTTOM LINE: We can't afford corporate welfare any more.

RealAmericansFirst

Oil companies keep subsidies

WASHINGTON -- After a full day of debate in which senators agreed that gas was too expensive and almost nothing else, a Democratic proposal to strip $2 billion in annual tax subsidies from five major oil companies failed Tuesday.
The vote was on a procedural question - whether to bring the bill to the floor for debate. Such motions require 60 votes to pass so while the bill earned a majority, 52 to 48, it still fell short. (Every Democrat voted for it except Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Begich of Alaska while all Republicans except Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine voted against it.)
Democrats said the vote delays, but does not end, efforts to change tax law that would disqualify Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips, Shell and BP from pocketing $21 billion in subsidies over the next 10 years.



   

Comments Part 1

Jump to discussion 1907 total comments

There will be mass slashing to Social Security and Medicare with no federal capacity left to stimulate the economy. When the public crys out, the Republicans (by nature)will blame it all on Obama. The Rich and powerful will come out of this with pockets full of money and even more influence because the Republicans have sold their souls to the Devil banking that the big corporations will start hiring. Republicans don't know what 'small business' really means, so, they're whole angle is based on 'Trickle Down Economics' again. This won't work because the big corporations will now want lower wages too. By the time you idiots who voted these tea parties into power realize what went wrong, it will be too late.
dennis-850400


Over two years, no budget. In fact you know how long it has been since this chamber proposed a budget? Forget passed a budget, proposed a budget? 822 days. That’s a long time. A lot of things have happened in the last 822 days, but proposing a budget is not one of them out of this chamber.
Marco Rubio to the Senate
Independent Republic of Texas,


I wish H Clinton had won.I don't think she would have been as spineless as Obama!He comes out of the gate compromising and by the time he closes the deal he has given away the farm.The right sees him as weak and they have no respect for him.This tiny minority (Tea Party}has terrified both houss of congress.This deal will result in a stronger than ever aristocracy of the super wealthy,while more and more of us will be flipping burgers or workingat W-mart.
r bowdn


Obama has broken the two major campaign promises he made to us. He hasn't gotten us out of the wars and he hasn't increased taxes on everyone making over $250K. Now his breaking of these two promises have come home to roost and his solution is to gut social programs. He is the biggest disappoint in my life. He has lost my vote.
 
The "Terror" that the Campaign for Americas Future, should read Campaign for Americas Socialist Future, reffers to is one created by this administration in an effort to field an army of what Stalin called "Useful Idiots"! The vast majoriety of this Administrations policies have, clearly been diametrically opposed to the creation of Private Sector jobs! 
 
If Obama moves right it forces the Republicans off the cliff, who's left to defeat Obama but the Democrats. Republicans win by de-fall (default). Roadrunner and Wile-Coyote get another episode. ACME Inc. business booms. RichMJones@rcn.com,

The extreme left, like the extreme right generally can not be satisfied. 
I voted for Obama and I intend to vote for him again; and as much as the Right attempted to label him a Liberal, I never pictured him that way.  If you actually listen to the man, he's always been a moderate.
I think it's smart that he's allowing the Republicans to push the very cuts that the country needs--any type of cut is going to generate a backlash.
I appreciate how this man has handled himself in a very difficult and hostile Washington.  I realize, and I am sure he does too, that there are some who would allow the country to suffer in order to see him to fail.
Doris-302877
 
Eric-913730If the Republicans get back in, you can bank on higher health care costs, more cuts to entitlements that will decimate the middle class and the elderly, and a poorer economy as their plans will raise unemployment and stall the economy.
Trickle down economics doesn't work and led to this mess.

PeAcE LoVeR-2838047
I want to ask all the liberals to spend a few minutes studying this as after 2012 it will all be implemented. Notice there is nothing hateful here it is all about FICAL RESPONSIBILTY and love of country {Taxed Enough Already}THE TEA PARTY MANIFESTO} BY "The Tea Party Patriots'.........

1. Protect the Constitution
Require each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does. (82.03%)

2. Reject Cap & Trade
Stop costly new regulations that would increase unemployment, raise consumer prices, and weaken the nation's global competitiveness with virtually no impact on global temperatures. (72.20%)

3. Demand a Balanced Budget
Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds majority needed for any tax hike. (69.69%)

4. Enact Fundamental Tax Reform
Adopt a simple and fair single-rate tax system by scrapping the internal revenue code and replacing it with one that is no longer than 4,543 words — the length of the original Constitution. (64.90%)

5. Restore Fiscal Responsibility & Constitutionally Limited Government in Washington
Create a Blue Ribbon taskforce that engages in a complete audit of federal agencies and programs, assessing their Constitutionality, and identifying duplication, waste, ineffectiveness, and agencies and programs better left for the states or local authorities, or ripe for wholesale reform or elimination due to our efforts to restore limited government consistent with the US Constitution's meaning. (63.37%)

6. End Runaway Government Spending
Impose a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of the inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth. (56.57%)

7. Defund, Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care
Defund, repeal and replace the recently passed government-run health care with a system that actually makes health care and insurance more affordable by enabling a competitive, open, and transparent free-market health care and health insurance system that isn't restricted by state boundaries. (56.39%)

8. Pass an All-of-the-Above Energy Policy
Authorize the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries and reduce regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation, lowering prices and creating competition and jobs. (55.51%)

9. Stop the Pork
Place a moratorium on all earmarks until the budget is balanced, and then require a 2/3 majority to pass any earmark. (55.47%)

10. Stop the Tax Hikes
Permanently repeal all tax hikes, including those to the income, capital gains, and death taxes, currently scheduled to begin in 2011.........................................

THIS IS NOT RADICAL or violent! This is about america and the people that love this great country. nothing about religion?

Eric-913730
The hyper partisan environment is just not conducive to accomplishing things like debt reform. Obama is pulling to the right to get this deal done so we avert economic catastrophe.
There will most certainly be a backlash as a result of the Tea Party and the "my way or the highway" stance of Republicans during these negotiations.
It's clear that Republicans want to end medicaid, medicare and social security, although they will run on "saving" them (which will be a clear lie). The voters won't be swayed so easily.
Additionally, there is not a Republican running that has a plan on how to bring back jobs, much less the economy. Boehner has been saying that with these cuts jobs will come back. The economic reality is that these cuts will stall the economy. Republicans will try and blame Obama for this, but its clear that since the Republicans took over the house the economy has slowed.
Republicans have had the house over 200 days and no word on a jobs bill yet, no word on what they would replace the health care law with, and no clear plans to heal the economy.

PeAcE LoVeR-2838047
You liberals have a lot of nerve ''a big jobs program with billions of dollars for public-works projects, which liberals in his party have clamored for'' WASTED A TRILLION$$$$$ on the stimulas for nothing and now you want to waste more money? No wonder 2010 was such a monumental DEFEAT for the democrat party!
Eric-913730
The next defeat peace lover will be for the Republicans. Ryan's medicare privatization bill showed Americans what the Republicans really want.
What are you going to replace health care with? No specifics, just rhetoric. How are you going to reform entitlements? No specifics, just rhetoric.
Finally, what are the Republican plans to reform the economy. All I see is a free ride for big business and more corporate welfare.

Nightbreeeze
You liberals have a lot of nerve ''a big jobs program with billions of dollars for public-works projects, which liberals in his party have clamored for'' WASTED A TRILLION$$$$$ on the stimulas for nothing and now you want to waste more money? No wonder 2010 was such a monumental DEFEAT for the democrat party!
Peace,
Copying and pasting your comment from 2 that was collapsed - that's rich. Well I can do it too. Especially as you still hadn't the guts to respond yet!
This is not a 'liberal' thing, although you obviously love to spin it that way. There have been 8 major recessions in the US since WW2. In all, federal spending had to be increased to hasten economic recovery. Virtualy every economist has been warning vociferously against the kind of non-sensical, drastic spending cuts being demanded. They, like others who understand economics, recognize that the debt must be addressed, but to minimize recovery time and costs, these major spending cuts should wait until after the recovery is well-established. The huge spending cuts insisted upon by the Republicans will only result in another recession within a year. Of course, given the recent history of the party and their bald statements about ousting the current administration being their first priority, it's obvious the party wants exactly that. They have shown their true colors and care only about retaining control and lining their own pockets; if the American people have to suffer, no problem, right?
Anone who espouses the kind of nonsense you are is either a very wealthy business owner or an investor or politician, but most likely you're just someone badly in need of an education. Go take Economics 101 for pete's sake. You're embarrassing yourself.

Rightward tilt in budget talks leaves Obama with party rift

President risks alienating Democratic voters ahead of 2012 election

By
updated 7/31/2011 7:24:30 AM ET


However the debt limit showdown ends, one thing is clear: under pressure from Congressional Republicans, President Obama has moved rightward on budget policy, deepening a rift within his party heading into the next election.
  1. Other political news of note
    1. First Read: 'Very close' to deal that looks a lot like Boehner plan
      A GOP source close to the negotiations tells NBC News that both sides are "very close" to agreement on a two-step debt-ceiling deal that's essentially the Boehner plan without the balanced-budget amendment and modified triggers.
    2. Washington strikes deal on debt ceiling
    3. First Read: In Congress, hope springs
    4. 'Taking the Hill': A rare look inside Congress
    5. NYT: Rightward tilt leaves Obama with party rift
Entering a campaign that is shaping up as an epic clash over the parties’ divergent views on the size and role of the federal government, Republicans have changed the terms of the national debate. Mr. Obama, seeking to appeal to the broad swath of independent voters, has adopted the Republicans’ language and in some cases their policies, while signaling a willingness to break with liberals on some issues.
That has some progressive members of Congress and liberal groups arguing that by not fighting for more stimulus spending, Mr. Obama could be left with an economy still producing so few jobs by Election Day that his re-election could be threatened. Besides turning off independents, Mr. Obama risks alienating Democratic voters already disappointed by his escalation of the war in Afghanistan and his failure to close the Guantánamo Bay prison, end the Bush-era tax cuts and enact a government-run health insurance system.
“The activist liberal base will support Obama because they’re terrified of the right wing,” said Robert L. Borosage, co-director of the liberal group Campaign for America’s Future.
But he said, “I believe that the voting base of the Democratic Party — young people, single women, African-Americans, Latinos — are going to be so discouraged by this economy and so dismayed unless the president starts to champion a jobs program and take on the Republican Congress that the ability of labor to turn out its vote, the ability of activists to mobilize that vote, is going to be dramatically reduced.”
Video: How do you make a deal in 72 hours? While Mr. Obama and Republicans have been unable to agree on a debt reduction plan for spending cuts and revenue increases to cut $4 trillion in the first decade, on Saturday they were negotiating a deal with fewer spending cuts that would ensure the government’s debt ceiling would be increased into 2013 to avoid another deadlock in the heat of campaign season.
No matter how the immediate issue is resolved, Mr. Obama, in his failed effort for greater deficit reduction, has put on the table far more in reductions for future years’ spending, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, than he did in new revenue from the wealthy and corporations. He proposed fewer cuts in military spending and more in health care than a bipartisan Senate group that includes one of the chamber’s most conservative Republicans.
To win approval of the essential increase in the nation’s $14.3 trillion borrowing ceiling, Mr. Obama sought more in deficit reduction than Republicans did, and with fewer changes to the entitlement programs, because he was willing to raise additional revenue starting in 2013 and they were not. And despite unemployment lingering at its highest level in decades, Mr. Obama has not fought this year for a big jobs program with billions of dollars for public-works projects, which liberals in his party have clamored for. Instead, he wants to extend a temporary payroll tax cut for everyone, since Republicans will support tax cuts, despite studies showing that spending programs are generally the more effective stimulus.
Even before last November’s election gave the Republicans control of the House, Mr. Obama had said he would pivot to deficit reduction after two years of stimulus measures intended first to rescue the economy and then to spur a recovery from the near collapse of the financial system. With Republicans’ gains in the midterm elections, that pivot became a lurch. Yet Congressional Republicans say Mr. Obama seeks a debt limit increase as “a blank check” to keep spending.
Story: Washington strikes deal on debt ceiling “The Republicans won, and they don’t know how to accept victory,” said Robert D. Reischauer, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office.
In his budget proposal in January, Mr. Obama declined to suggest a plan along the lines proposed by a majority of his bipartisan fiscal commission, which in December recommended $4 trillion in savings over 10 years through cuts in military and domestic programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and a tax code overhaul to lower rates while also raising more revenue.
Even though Mr. Obama was widely criticized, administration officials said at the time that to have embraced that approach then would have put him too far to the right — where he ultimately wanted to end up in any compromise with Republicans, not where he wanted to start.
But by this month, in ultimately unsuccessful talks with Speaker John A. Boehner, Mr. Obama tentatively agreed to a plan that was farther to the right than that of the majority of the fiscal commission and a bipartisan group of senators, the so-called Gang of Six. It also included a slow rise in the Medicare eligibility age to 67 from 65, and, after 2015, a change in the formula for Social Security cost-of-living adjustments long sought by economists.
“He’s accommodated himself to the new reality in Washington,” said Tom Davis, a former House Republican leader from Virginia. “That’s what leaders do.”
But Congressional Democrats and liberal groups objected.
Story: Debt daze: It's a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad, mad DC “The president’s proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare has the potential to sap the energy of the Democratic base — among older voters because of Medicare and Medicaid and younger voters because of the lack of jobs,” said Damon A. Silvers, policy director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. “And second, all these fiscal austerity proposals on the table will make the economy worse.”
Mr. Obama’s situation has parallels with the mid-1990s, when President Bill Clinton shifted to the center after Republicans took Congress and battled them on deficit reduction and a welfare overhaul. Many Democrats were angered by his concessions, by a sense of being left out of negotiations and by a fear of alienating Democratic voters. Mr. Clinton was re-elected in 1996.
But Mr. Obama is likely to face the voters with a weaker economy and higher unemployment than during Mr. Clinton’s era. Still, his advisers express confidence that voters will reward Mr. Obama either for winning a bipartisan deal, if that were to happen, or for at least having a more balanced approach that does not remake Medicare and Medicaid and asks for more revenue from the wealthy. And they suggest another potential parallel with the Clinton years of divided government: that Republicans risk a voter backlash with their uncompromising stands.
“Democrats created Social Security and Medicare, and we have fought for decades against Republican attempts to end these programs,” said Dan Pfeiffer, Mr. Obama’s communications director. “And President Obama believes that now is the time for Democrats to be the ones to step up and save Social Security and Medicare.”
Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster, said polling data showed that at this point in his term, Mr. Obama, compared with past Democratic presidents, was doing as well or better with Democratic voters. “Whatever qualms or questions they may have about this policy or that policy, at the end of the day the one thing they’re absolutely certain of — they’re going to hate these Republican candidates,” Mr. Mellman said. “So I’m not honestly all that worried about a solid or enthusiastic base.”
Binyamin Appelbaum contributed reporting.
This article, "Rightward Tilt Leaves Obama With Party Rift," first appeared in The New York Times. 

 
Comments follow in the next two blog enteries.  There were over 1900 comments and I only picked a few

A day-in-the-life of Congress