In a development that was entirely predictable, President Obama essentially struck another one of his trademarked compromises with Republicans, giving them stuff they wanted while not getting anything that Democrats want or that will create jobs.
Oh, yeah, and it screws poor people too.
The fecklessness below.
One has to admire Bill Daley's White House in its efficiency in capitulating.
Early this morning, the Republicans made a move to wrongfoot Obama by cherry-picking the most Republican elements of his job proposal and combining them into one frankenbill.
The House GOP has hit upon a way to undercut President Obama’s attacks on them and advance conservative policy goals all at once. This week, they’ll pass legislation that includes perhaps the least stimulative measure in President Obama’s jobs bill and pay for it with perhaps the most regressive measure in a recent package of deficit reducing proposals he submitted to the joint deficit super committee.
The piece of the jobs bill Republicans will pass would end a requirement that the government withhold three percent of the cost of projects contracted out to private companies, to assure tax compliance. It’s a rule that Congress adopted during the Bush administration to cut down on tax cheating by government contractors. The near-term stimulative value of repeal is questionable, according to critics, and it’s a permanent repeal — not a holiday. The Joint Committee on Taxation concluded that the requirement saves the federal government over $10 billion over 10 years that would otherwise be lost to major contractors.
The new standard on Capitol Hill, though, is that all legislation other than permanent tax cuts for wealthy people must be paid for — typically with cuts to federal programs. So Republicans have selected a provision from Obama’s deficit reduction recommendations that would limit Medicaid eligibility for people who also receive Social Security benefits.
Just let this thing die in the Senate, right? Come out opposing it since it places the full burden on the backs of the economically disadvantaged, right?
Wrong. Obama being Obama, he decided that caving to Republicans to appear all bipartisanywas more important then the substance.
Republicans just won a round of jousting over President Obama’s jobs bill.
President Obama supports passage of House GOP legislation that would eliminate a tax compliance rule affecting big government contractors and pay for it by limiting Medicaid eligibility, the White House announced Tuesday.
To recap: Republicans remain united and don't give Obama and the Democrats a single damn thing they want in the jobs bill.
But, the first time the Republicans pass something they claim is jobs-related, the White House express delivers its surrender.
The jobs bill may have succeeded in 'changing the debate' but in policy terms it has turned into yet another victory for the John Boehner, and another decision to lose by the White House. Policy-wise, we would have been better off if it had never been introduced.
Sigh. Just a reminder that controlling the House should be our #1 priority, since this President is perhaps the most inept President in history when it comes to dealing with the opposing party in Congress.
Update:
The offers of surrender here and here.