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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (78457)	3/18/2010 8:50:27 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

The sharp contrast in how the administration tackles health care reform and jobs has been a source of friction within Democratic ranks as some lawmakers fear the administration's all-or-nothing approach to health care will cost them their jobs in November and possibly lead to a Republican takeover of Congress. Obama Uses Same Approach to Jobs Agenda That He Rejected for Health Care By Stephen Clark FOXNews.com When it comes to jobs, President Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress have no problem taking a step-by-step approach to putting millions of unemployed Americans back to work. But when it comes to fixing health care, the president has refused to consider anything short of sweeping reform, despite pressure from Republicans and even some of his top advisers to start from scratch and employ an incremental approach. The sharp contrast in how the administration has tackled the two issues has been a source of friction within Democratic ranks, as some lawmakers fear the administration's all-or-nothing approach to health care will cost them their jobs in November and possibly lead to a Republican takeover of Congress. But Obama has thrown electoral caution to the wind, telling Republican lawmakers at a health care summit last month that if they maintained their opposition to his approach to reform, Democrats would close the deal without them. And if voters are not pleased with the results, he said, "then that's what elections are for." "I think what it shows is a symbolic difference in priorities for Democrats," said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean, a former top Capitol Hill aide. "When Democrats see a problem in America, they want to throw a lot of money at it," he said, arguing that is the reason why the health care bill costs nearly a trillion dollars. "And then you look at the relatively small $15 billion jobs bill that will have minimal impact on the economy. It's a failure of them to show up to work on America's number one priority," Bonjean said. But Democratic strategist Bernard Whitman, a former pollster for President Clinton, told FoxNews.com that a piecemeal approach is right for creating jobs and not for reforming health care. "The problem is that everything in health care is connected, and you can't effectuate change that will ultimately bring down health care costs without requiring everyone to carry insurance," he said. "But the economy is in such a state that it will require regular and consistent efforts on the part of executives as well as Congress to reboot the economy," he said. Congress' furious final push to pass health care reform by this weekend has overshadowed efforts by Democrats to show they are addressing the nation's unemployment problem. The latest step came Wednesday, when the Senate voted 68-29 in favor of a bill that provides a temporary payroll tax holiday to companies that hire unemployed workers. Obama plans to sign the bill into law. "It is the first of what I hope will be a series of jobs packages that help to continue to put people back to work," Obama said after the vote. But critics say the measure won't actually do much to create jobs. Optimistic estimates predict the tax break could generate perhaps 250,000 jobs through the end of the year, just a tiny fraction of the 8.4 million jobs lost since the start of the recession. The measure passed Wednesday is modest compared with last year's $862 billion stimulus package, which was sold as a jobs-producing recovery bill. A far larger jobs bill than the one that passed Wednesday would extend health insurance subsidies and jobless checks for the unemployed. But it has hit a snag as the House and the Senate wrangle over how to finance the legislation. Bonjean said Democrats are lacking an overall strategy to deal with the economic crisis and the incremental approach they using for job creation should have been employed on health care. "You have this massive health care bill that's confusing, and Democrats are getting clobbered by it," he said. "A wise strategy would be to divide it up to draw bipartisan support." But Whitman said Democrats will avoid major losses in November if they can "clearly explain what they've done to help restart the economy, to restart jobs and get us back on track. "And I think it's a good record," he said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. foxnews.com

To: Sully- who wrote (78457)	3/18/2010 10:13:36 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

*** My mother always said I was some kind of savant * :-) Health Care Fight Delays…And Delays…Obama's Other Campaign Priorities By Stephen Clark FOXNews.com For 14 months -- nearly a third of his elected term in office -- President Obama has been fighting an almost constant battle to pass a health care reform bill. During that time, dust appears to have settled on many of his other campaign priorities, in particular immigration overhaul, energy reform and a comprehensive jobs bill. -- Despite Obama's promise to reform the immigration system in his first year, Congress has yet to introduce a bill. -- Climate change legislation barely passed the House last June and has stalled in the Senate ever since. -- Though Obama just signed into law a package of tax breaks and spending designed to encourage the private sector to start hiring again, he admitted the bill is "by no means enough." The same applies to a series of other issues: -- More than a year after Wall Street greed and excess led to the biggest financial meltdown since the Great Depression, Senate Democrats just introduced a financial reform bill this week. -- Obama's proposed $3.8 trillion budget, which he released last month, has been placed on a back burner. -- Several of the president's nominees to federal positions are waiting for confirmation hearings. Sixty-four nominees are pending in the Senate. -- As of Dec. 31, the number of top positions vacant in the Obama administration was about 40 percent, according to a report by the Partnership for Public Service. The administration's singular focus on health care reform has left political observers scratching their heads. "It's a strange White House," said GOP strategist Matt Schlapp, a former White House director to President George W. Bush. Schlapp told FoxNews.com that the administration is "too focused on one fight" and "not multitasking." "What's on deck? There's nothing on deck," he said, describing the White House as having a "crisis mentality" that is unable to focus on other issues. Schlapp said the Bush White House employed an overarching strategy to its agenda, focusing on a sequence of bills instead of just one. "What we did always led to the next battle," he said. "In this White House, it seems they say, 'I've got to go here because this guy is undecided on health care.'" The president is so focused on closing the deal on health care, he postponed his trip to Asia so he can stay in Washington for a possible vote on a bill in the House on Sunday. "The president believes right now the place for him to be is in Washington, seeing this through," his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said on Thursday. Gibbs said once debate has ended, the administration will quickly shift its focus to overhauling Wall Street. "We will wake up a week or two weeks from now with the need to get credit flowing to small businesses," he said. "We will discuss financial regulatory reform so the rules of the road are different than what caused the type of greed and risk taking on Wall Street. So we will wake up and there will be more to do. I think that's true and safe to say about every day you're here." Democratic strategist Martin Frost, a former Texas congressman, told FoxNews.com that he believes Congress will be able to pivot back to a jobs agenda "very quickly" if health care reform passes. He said Obama's slow pace at enacting his agenda doesn't worry him. "It's hard for a new president often to get things done as quickly as he wanted," Frost said, noting that Bill Clinton had similar problems in his first two years in office. "Even though he had to deal with a Republican Congress after that, he got better the longer he was in office." Frost said he believes the White House should focus on jobs to the exclusion of everything else after health care is resolved.** "I don't think immigration overhaul is in the cards. I think it's too hard," he said. "Energy remains too hard. But there's opportunity for the president to accomplish other things." foxnews.com