{"id":15996,"date":"2012-09-29T18:11:06","date_gmt":"2012-09-29T22:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=15996"},"modified":"2012-09-29T18:11:06","modified_gmt":"2012-09-29T22:11:06","slug":"obama%e2%80%99s-clinton-conundrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/15996\/obama%e2%80%99s-clinton-conundrum\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama\u2019s Clinton Conundrum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Politico<\/a> on why the Obama campaign is using former President Bill Clinton so often:<\/p>\n

As the campaign acknowledges, Clinton brings credibility to the connection between an Obama presidency and a strong economy, reinforcing the idea that there\u2019s a straight line between Obama\u2019s proposals and Clinton\u2019s legacy of budget surpluses and middle class prosperity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s only a credible connection if you don\u2019t consider the wildly differing contexts.<\/p>\n

As Tim<\/a> pointed out earlier this month, \u201cthe so-called \u201cClinton surpluses\u201d didn\u2019t arrive until 1998, four years after Newt Gingrich and the Republicans captured Congress for the first time in four decades, and six years after Clinton was elected.\u00a0 Given the fact that Congress controls the budget under our Constitution, it is therefore disingenuous for Clinton and his apologists to claim sole credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus, if in 2012 the Obama camp really wants to make the case that a national economic recovery is just around the corner<\/a>, it should have prayed for a complete conservative takeover of Congress in 2010.\u00a0 Had he been faced with an entire branch of government \u2013 not just the House \u2013 passing real budgets, chances are the Obama White House would have had a Clintonesque opportunity to make a deal.<\/p>\n

Instead, Obama has had no incentive to move to the middle for the sake of compromise because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has been willing to abdicate his chamber\u2019s constitutional responsibility<\/a> to pass a new budget for the last three years of Obama\u2019s term of office.\u00a0 And so the President dithers while the economy sputters.<\/p>\n

Call it the Clinton Conundrum.\u00a0 Both Clinton and Obama are doctrinaire liberals whose policy impulses created pushes to nationalize health care.\u00a0 Both prefer to raise taxes and spend money.\u00a0 But Clinton, unlike Obama, was saved from oblivion when Republicans took over both houses of Congress in 1994 and (implicitly and unintentionally) made him an offer he didn\u2019t refuse: either adopt our reform agenda or face defeat in reelection.\u00a0 Clinton accepted and has benefited ever since.\u00a0 Obama\u2019s choice was between Senate Democrat dithering and House Republican reform.\u00a0 He sided with his party and hasn\u2019t governed since.<\/p>\n

If Barack Obama wants Bill Clinton\u2019s success, he\u2019ll have to adopt Bill Clinton\u2019s policies.\u00a0 In large part, that means adopting conservative budget reforms so that he can claim credit for a rebounding economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Politico on why the Obama campaign is using former President Bill Clinton so often: As the campaign acknowledges, Clinton brings credibility to the connection between an Obama presidency and a strong economy, reinforcing the idea that there\u2019s a straight line between Obama\u2019s proposals and Clinton\u2019s legacy of budget surpluses and middle class prosperity. It\u2019s only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2033,143,501,70,84,928,1685,19,77,1784],"class_list":["post-15996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-2033","tag-barack-obama","tag-bill-clinton","tag-budget","tag-congress","tag-conservative","tag-democrat","tag-economy","tag-harry-reid","tag-republican"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15996"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16001,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15996\/revisions\/16001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}