OBAMA: “You haven’t seen me out there blaming the Republicans.”
OBAMA three minutes earlier: “I’ve heard that one Republican strategist told his party that even though they may want to compromise, it’s better politics to ‘go for the kill.’ Another Republican senator said that defeating health reform is about ‘breaking’ me.”
I think it’s fair to say that reforming healthcare is a Democratic issue. The Democrats control the House, the Senate, and the White House. If the Democrats fail to pass comprehensive health care reform, can you blame the GOP for that failure? If not, shouldn’t you shut up about it?
Pointing frustrated fingers at the minority party only enhances the growing opinion that the majority party is dropping the ball. If it succeeds, it does so without GOP support and the Democrats take all of the credit. If it fails, it does so not because of the GOP but because the Democrat representation in Congress has significant numbers of fiscally conservative Democrats.
Or, as Mankiw described the Presser:
So he says, “You haven’t seen me out there blaming the Republicans.”
But I just heard a quote from him the other day whining about “inheriting a 1.3B$ deficit. First, that number is completely false, and second, he’s ABSOLUTELY “out there blaming the Republicans”.
Now, I’m not saying Obama is to blame for everything currently going wrong, but he knew the score when we ran for President. He WANTED this job. One could argue he actually won because of the current state of affairs that he’s crying about. Meaning people chose him for the purpose of fixing the problems. And he’s in charge now. They control congress with what is effectively a super majority. So, if anything doesn’t get fixed, the dems are the only ones to blame.