By Steve Rhodes
It was interesting that the Sun-Times saw fit to publish U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley’s remarks on Tuesday on the floor of the House about the debt ceiling, in which he cited Ronald Reagan’s admonishment to Congress in 1983 to raise the ceiling or face drastic consequences.
In fact, Quigley says, Reagan asked Congress to raise the debt ceiling 18 times during his presidency.
Interesting, because our current president once faced the same question as a United States Senator and his response was quite different than that of Reagan, Quigley or his present day self.
“Four year ago,” ABC News has reported, among other media outlets, “then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., voted the exact way President Obama is now cautioning senators not to do.”
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure,” he said on March 16, 2006. “Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”
The president’s aides say now that Obama cast his vote against the debt ceiling back then knowing it would pass anyway, therefore not endangering the full faith and credit of the United States.
So you deceived your constituents, Mr. President? You didn’t really mean it? It was “just politics?” All those talking heads and political junkies raging at the other side just like they’re doing now . . . ginned up by Obama, then and now.
And oh, the 2006 bill only passed by four votes.
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Back then, the script was flipped.
“House Democrats voted unanimously against raising the debt ceiling in 2004, with Mr. Bush in the Oval Office and Republicans controlling the House,” the New York Times reports. “In 2006, so did Mr. Obama and all other Senate Democrats.”
Obama is much wiser now, according to White House press secretary Jay Carney.
“He realizes now that raising the debt ceiling is so important to the health of this economy and the global economy that it is not a vote that, even when you are protesting an administration’s policies, you can play around with,” Carney said in April.
And I thought McCain was the one who didn’t understand economics.
PR Presidency
“The podium from which Carney speaks includes two hidden computer displays,” the Daily Caller reports. “They allow his staff to show him prepared answers when he is asked an expected question.”
Access Presidency
“Mayor Rahm Emanuel headlines three Obama re-election fund-raisers in New York on Thursday, including one that is part of a new ‘speakers series’ featuring present and former Obama White House officials such as Valerie Jarrett, David Plouffe, Robert Gibbs and David Axelrod,” Lynn Sweet reports for the Sun-Times.
“The series was developed by Obama’s fund-raising team to market to donors and bundlers – people who tap into their personal networks to raise money for a candidate – who may not be at the elite levels and therefore cannot get to intimate $35,000 events with President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle or Vice President Joe Biden. Since the Obama 2012 re-election campaign launched in April, Obama has been the draw at 31 events; Michelle Obama, nine, and Biden, five . . .
“I asked the White House about the propriety and rules relating to featuring administration figures at fund-raisers – because access to officials is always an issue – and was told by a spokesman, Eric Schultz: ‘As has been the consistent practice for prior administrations, officials in their private time can and do engage in political work on behalf of the president. Administration officials are also permitted to speak at, attend and be the featured guest at political events, including fund-raisers, but they cannot, and do not, personally solicit contributions.'”
Liberal groups think that’s okay because Bush was (allegedly) worse.
See also: Obama Campaign Advised White House Staff To Give Top Donors Sense Of Access.
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Huh.
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Cynicism Presidency
“President Obama’s 2012 campaign manager announced an epic fundraising effort of $86 million for the first quarter, setting up an enviably high bar and leaving his contenders wondering: where is all this money coming from? As it turns out, much of the money comes from ‘bundlers,’ defined by Talking Points Memo as ‘super-donors who are very rich, max out their personal fundraising amounts, and then call on their wealthy friends to do the same.’ Twenty-seven bundlers alone raised more than half a million dollars.”
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“The cynics, the lobbyists, the special interests who’ve turned our government into a game only they can afford to play,” said then-Sen Obama in his February 2007 announcement speech. “They get the access while you get to write a letter . . . The time for that kind of politics is over.”
Yes. Now we won’t even read your letters!
“Nearly 80 percent of those who collected more than $500,000 for Obama took ‘key administration posts,’ as defined by the White House” iWatchNews reports. “More than half the ambassador nominees who were bundlers raised more than half a million.
“The big bundlers had broad access to the White House for meetings with top administration officials and glitzy social events. In all, campaign bundlers and their family members account for more than 3,000 White House meetings and visits.”
Waiting for Superman
It’s not the debt ceiling I’m worried about, it’s the bullshit ceiling. Why do we keep raising that?
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Comments welcome.
Posted on July 21, 2011