Obama, Biden and Reid - More interested in placing blame than achieving results for the American People...

It's such a shame that Obama, Biden and Reid are more interested in trying to blame the Republicans than carrying out the will of the American People and actually cutting government spending....For the Democrats it's still the same old game of trying to place blame rather than achieve results...After all Biden is supposedly in charge of this for Obama and he's been traveling all over the world...hobnobbing with the New York Yankees and doing everything possible EXCEPT working diligently on the budget issues. It's obvious that the democrats didn't get the message from November midterm elections.....We have to make certain that they get our message in 2012 and give the White House back to a Conservative Republican.


Dems Prepare to Profit from Shutdown

By Chris Stirewalt Published March 29, 2011

On Shutdown, Dems Have Talking Points But No Plan

“It’s hard to get a straight answer from Democrats these days because their position changes almost daily, depending on whether you talk to the White House or Senate Democrats.” -- Senior House GOP aide to Power Play

The assumption in Washington is that the government will shut down when the current stopgap funding measure expires on April 8.

The questions now at hand are – For how long? And who gets the blame?

Democrats are working on a plan that would allow them to say they tried to meet Republicans halfway on spending cuts. This is similar to the earlier effort in which Democrats said they were meeting Republicans halfway because they were abandoning $47 billion in spending requests sought by President Obama.

The new effort on the Democratic side involves taking cuts already made and adjustments in other expenditures outside the realm of Republican cuts – annualized changes in farm subsidy rates, for example – to claim that they are proposing half of the $61 billion in total reductions sought by the GOP.

It looks like a mess, but the goal isn’t good bookkeeping. The goal is to divide the House Republican caucus and position themselves to profit politically. While there is no sign that Senate Democrats and the White House have a real accord on cuts, the message from Majority Leader Harry Reid and his team is already in place on the assumption that some kind of plan will eventually be produced.

The narrative from Reid and others is that Democrats and moderate Republicans want to meet halfway, but that a brigade of Tea Party savages is preventing them. He paints the Republican leadership as hostages who would gladly sell out but are politically afraid to do so.

It’s not clear if Reid’s primary intent is just to insult Speaker John Boehner or to rile up freshmen members, but either way, the ultimate goal is still the same – divide and conquer.

While this narrative is very attractive to reporters who have been flogging Tea Party rebellion stories since three months before the 2010 elections, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will work in the long run.

For the Reid plan to work, Senate Democrats actually have to cough up a plan. It doesn’t have to succeed, but it has to get past the Senate, or at least have the unified support of the body’s 53 Democratic members. The Democratic caucus in the Senate smacked down Reid’s last gambit -- $6.5 billion in cuts for the rest of the year.

“First, they didn’t believe one dime in spending could be cut. Then they relented and agreed to cut $10 billion after Republicans forced the issue. Then Democrats said they could offer $11 billion more, but most of it was gimmicks,” a senior House GOP staffer told Power Play. “And suddenly, days later, they say they can offer $20 billion, but they won’t share it with anyone. Republicans have passed a credible plan; it’s called H.R. 1. Where is the Democrats’ bill, and where is their plan?”

Vice President Joe Biden huddles again today with the administration’s budget team in a bid to cobble together a cuts package that Democrats can again tout as meeting the Republicans halfway.

But as in the last effort, success will depend on whether the cuts are real and if moderate Senate Democrats will go along. Democrats failed on both counts last time, but Biden and Reid are now hoping that a bigger number will get them the support of most of their caucus and maybe a few moderate Republicans.

But for now, Reid and Biden are betting on the come. They are bashing Tea Partiers and expressing sympathy for the hostage Boehner in expectation that the Senate will fall into line.

But as more Senate Democrats join the movement to use the current crisis as leverage to get support for entitlement reform or even balanced budget legislation, the administration and Reid may find a limited audience for a plan that looks like a political stunt designed to force a government shutdown and place the blame on Republicans.

Unless President Obama and Reid are willing to expand the playing field on fiscal issues, it seems unlikely that they can avoid a government shutdown or be seen as credible on the deficit.

The Democrats who have argued that a shutdown would be a political opportunity may have led their party into this war of words without an exit strategy.




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