Anxiety over President Obama’s shift to the political center is threatening to alienate the White House’s liberal base.
As Obama prepares Wednesday to outline his deficit reduction strategy, liberals worry he’ll embrace Medicare and Medicaid cuts as an olive branch to Republicans in advance of larger fights over the nation’s debt.
The concerns have surfaced after the White House rankled lawmakers on the left by agreeing to a 2011 spending bill that slashes funding for a number of programs long favored by Democrats and embracing a controversial trade agreement with Colombia.
Liberal lawmakers already were irked with Obama’s decision to support upper-income tax cuts he campaigned against and to launch military operations in the Middle East without congressional approval.
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) this week said Obama should start acting like a Democrat, while two left-wing grassroots groups warned their members could withhold funds from the president’s reelection campaign.
The criticisms highlight the problem facing Obama, who is trying to lead from the center without alienating his political base. The White House strategy could help the president with independents, but risks leaving liberals at home in the fall of 2012.
The difficulty of navigating this tightrope was exemplified last week, when Obama announced his reelection campaign the same day his attorney general said the administration was all but giving up on holding civilian trials for suspected terrorists.
It has also come up with the spending bill, which the White House has touted as an example of presidential leadership but which liberal groups have criticized.
The agreement would cut almost $40 billion in federal funding this year, with cuts targeting education, health and nutrition programs long supported by Democrats. Liberals are grumbling that Obama favored the Republicans’ priorities over those of his own caucus.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who helped Obama broker the deal, has joined the White House in highlighting the programs the Democrats were able to preserve, rather than dwelling on the cuts they were forced to concede.
But a spokeswoman for the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) warned that such an approach creates the impression that Democrats are winning the budget battle.
“We’re not winning,” the CBC spokeswoman said, explaining that many of the cuts enacted this year disproportionately affect minority and low-income populations.
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14 Responses
All my friends who voted for Obama are sooo sorry now. They want him impeached!!!! They got what they wanted – a dictator and muslim.
To the center? he is just as left as ever.
There is no Left, Center, or Right with a president who is basically unAmerican and unpatriotic!
Obama is never had a policy besides the destruction of the US. His rhetoric is what ever will get elected. reality sucks when you have no concept of what you are doing. May H”B protect us from this very bright anti Semite moslem, whose Ideas are more in line with Iran than with the country that is sorry it elected him. Remember your history, it was the left wings Jews of Germany that elected Hitler, Those that do not learn from history are damned to repeat it>
Nos. 3&4: John McCain disagrees with you. He said recently that while he has serious policy disagreements with Obama, he considers Obama to be a patriot who is sincerely trying to use his time in office to make the country into a better place.
Center?? No wonder they call people who think taxes & spending is too high, that there is too much govt, “far” right.
No. 4 writes in part: “Remember your history, it was the left wings Jews of Germany that elected Hitler, Those that do not learn from history are damned to repeat it>”
I have never heard that Hitler had the support of any leftists, Jewish or otherwise. Can No. 4 – or anyone else – cite an authority that establishes the truth of the quoted statement from No. 4?
Its a sad fact that the die hard jews who are liberal still support the gangster Obama. Even people who call themselves Frum are leftist radical liberals, (which is full of sheker and anti torah values) like charlie hall among others. What a pity.
The preceding comments provide a sad commentary on the political knowledge and level of discourse amongst a (hopefully) small segment of the frum community.
You can disagree with his politics (I do, for the most part). But to make the accusations that have been made here shows a low level of sophistication and a devolution of rhetoric to a level far below what befits what should be our mentsch-like standard.
#9:
Well said, and right on the mark.
9,
Thank you for your comment. You may now get off your soapbox and go back into your cave. We have heard enough from the drones today and if not, I am sure charliehall is out there someplace.
Nfgo, I agree with you. This accusation is preposterous.
Toratotty, did the liberal Jews elect the Chinggis Khan too ?
The main problem with Obama that the republicans neglected to highlight is that he hates children. When parents spend wildly just to put their children into heavy debt it can be said they hate their children. That’s what Obama is doing to the children of this country.
#11:
Given my point (which you just made even stronger), it is not surprising that rather than address the substance of my argument, you resort to baseless, nonsensical ad hominem attacks.
Well done.