Posted on Jun 21, 2015
President Obama seems increasingly resigned to spinning his wheels in Washington. Is his frustration justified?
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In a speech at a California fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee last week, President Obama offered a remarkably candid assessment of how he has tried — and failed — to change Washington. Two paragraphs, in particular, stand out.
“I am frustrated, and you have every right to be frustrated, because Congress doesn’t work the way it should,” Obama said, describing a conversation with a disenchanted voter. “Issues are left untended. Folks are more interested in scoring political points than getting things done, not because any individual member of Congress is a bad person — there are a lot of good, well-meaning, hard-working people out there — but because the incentives that have been built into the system reward short term, reward a polarized politics, reward being simplistic instead of being true, reward division.”
“And as mightily as I have struggled against that, I told him, you’re right. It still is broken. But I reminded him that when I ran in 2008, I, in fact, did not say I would fix it; I said we could fix it. I didn’t say, ‘Yes, I can’; I said — what? . . . ‘Yes, we can.’ ”
Obama’s comments in California were the second time in a 24-hour period in which he expressed resignation to the political realities of Washington, more weary pragmatist than an optimistic change agent.
Earlier Thursday, speaking about the killing of nine people at a church in Charleston, S.C., the night before, Obama started angry, but that emotion quickly faded to grudging acceptance.
“It is in our power to do something about it,” Obama said about the mass murders with guns in recent years. “I say that recognizing the politics in this town foreclose a lot of those avenues right now. But it would be wrong for us not to acknowledge it.”
Obama’s framing of his inability to change Washington is, not surprisingly, cast in the best possible light for him: I tried, but politics is so broken that not even I (and remember that Obama, like almost all politicians, has a very healthy self-regard) could fix it. I can’t make people do things they just won’t do. I can’t bend the system to work properly. No one can.
division.http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-hard-lessons/2015/06/21/56c07130-181b-11e5-ab92-c75ae6ab94b5_story.html?hpid=z5
“I am frustrated, and you have every right to be frustrated, because Congress doesn’t work the way it should,” Obama said, describing a conversation with a disenchanted voter. “Issues are left untended. Folks are more interested in scoring political points than getting things done, not because any individual member of Congress is a bad person — there are a lot of good, well-meaning, hard-working people out there — but because the incentives that have been built into the system reward short term, reward a polarized politics, reward being simplistic instead of being true, reward division.”
“And as mightily as I have struggled against that, I told him, you’re right. It still is broken. But I reminded him that when I ran in 2008, I, in fact, did not say I would fix it; I said we could fix it. I didn’t say, ‘Yes, I can’; I said — what? . . . ‘Yes, we can.’ ”
Obama’s comments in California were the second time in a 24-hour period in which he expressed resignation to the political realities of Washington, more weary pragmatist than an optimistic change agent.
Earlier Thursday, speaking about the killing of nine people at a church in Charleston, S.C., the night before, Obama started angry, but that emotion quickly faded to grudging acceptance.
“It is in our power to do something about it,” Obama said about the mass murders with guns in recent years. “I say that recognizing the politics in this town foreclose a lot of those avenues right now. But it would be wrong for us not to acknowledge it.”
Obama’s framing of his inability to change Washington is, not surprisingly, cast in the best possible light for him: I tried, but politics is so broken that not even I (and remember that Obama, like almost all politicians, has a very healthy self-regard) could fix it. I can’t make people do things they just won’t do. I can’t bend the system to work properly. No one can.
division.http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-hard-lessons/2015/06/21/56c07130-181b-11e5-ab92-c75ae6ab94b5_story.html?hpid=z5
Barack Obama
Office of the President (POTUS)
Congress
Politics
Leadership
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 20
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The President fails to understand something. The Constitution built our system to function not only slowly but at odds with itself.
"When it is working properly, it is not working at all."
Not to speak badly of the man, but I don't think he ever understood this fundamental concept of the Constitution. It's designed to have Government that CAN'T pass laws. If you look at the procedures for passing laws, it's built to be difficult. It's intentional. We aren't supposed to have "agents of change." We aren't supposed to be able to push through laws. They're supposed to logjam up.
All that said, his frustration is because he is expecting something he cannot have. He wants an efficient system for passing Law. Our Legislative Process is not that. It's like wanting a sports car that fits a family of 6, and gets 60mpg. You can want it all day long, but sooner or later, you need to face the reality of how cars are built.
"When it is working properly, it is not working at all."
Not to speak badly of the man, but I don't think he ever understood this fundamental concept of the Constitution. It's designed to have Government that CAN'T pass laws. If you look at the procedures for passing laws, it's built to be difficult. It's intentional. We aren't supposed to have "agents of change." We aren't supposed to be able to push through laws. They're supposed to logjam up.
All that said, his frustration is because he is expecting something he cannot have. He wants an efficient system for passing Law. Our Legislative Process is not that. It's like wanting a sports car that fits a family of 6, and gets 60mpg. You can want it all day long, but sooner or later, you need to face the reality of how cars are built.
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LTC Paul Labrador
I think it is more of a matter of not wanting to reach across aisle and do what it actually takes to govern: find consensus. Right now both parties are run by the ideologues. For them, negotiation and consensus are unthinkable. However, I guarantee you that most Americans, whether they be Dem or Rep, are for closer to the middle and are okay with finding consensus that both sides can live with.
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SrA Art Siatkowsky
the federal government needs only to provide a strong military and intelligence service and enforce the constitution. Protect the American citizens and ensure their rights under the constitution. Thats all. Thats how it was designed to be played out and obamas frustration is that he disagrees with the constitution he swore to uphold, he lied from day one and thank God our system of government has prevented him from doing more damage than he already has. If he was looking to fulfill the oath he swore to protect the constitution things would go alot easier.
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History tells us a lot. And n this case history tells us that many Presidents have had congresses from the alternate party and worked with them. It has only been the last 2 years President Obama has offered any type of cooperation. Remember "I won".....
This is a problem of his own making, or as we might call it lack of leadership skills.
This is a problem of his own making, or as we might call it lack of leadership skills.
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That depends. He has not gotten cooperation on his agenda. But, then he has not given cooperation either.
My way or no way seldom makes for gain.
My way or no way seldom makes for gain.
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SSG John Erny
For some reason Presidents tend to end up as a lame duck near the end of their term, the country tends to choose one party over another from election to election. The country moves to far to the right or the left and the ship tends to right it’s self and turn towards the center. This is perhaps for the best for all people. Go far enough to the left and you have a communist dictator, go too far to the right and you have corporate dictator. It is time for the pendulum to swing back to the right in my opinion.
The government gets more done when no one political branch is in power, they have to meet in the middle. I think that is what the founding fathers had in mind.
The government gets more done when no one political branch is in power, they have to meet in the middle. I think that is what the founding fathers had in mind.
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No, it is not. The Will of the People is most closely represented by the House of Representatives which threw out his party only 2 years after he became President. A large number of those Republicans were elected to stop his agenda. He has refused almost any compromise, ignored Congress and acted consistently against it.
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I believe that his frustration is justified - and it is the result of his own hubris over the past six years.
If he had been willing to work cooperatively with congress (in both Parties) rather than shoving his ideas down unwilling throats he would have built up enough trust to be more effective in his dealings with them today.
What goes around comes around, and that is what is galling him today.
If he had been willing to work cooperatively with congress (in both Parties) rather than shoving his ideas down unwilling throats he would have built up enough trust to be more effective in his dealings with them today.
What goes around comes around, and that is what is galling him today.
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In 2007, then Senator Obama would rail against the way that George W. Bush governed. He voted to defund the Iraq War. He voted to not raise the debt ceiling, saying it was "unpatriotic" to run up the national debt at the rate it was going... and that was before the Lehman Brothers crisis.
Later, of course, President Obama went a whole 'nother way. Holding both houses of Congress, he was able to see any legislation he wanted through. Congress promptly passed a preposterous, pork-filled nightmare of an $847 Billion stimulus package, then since that wasn't enough, a subsequent omnibus spending bill that tacked on another $400 Billion or so. That was before the Affordable Care Act. Congress has been stuck doing continuing resolutions ever since, RENEWING all of this spending annually.
Then along comes a Republican House, and sequestration is born. We are told how horrible it is and how the government can't possibly run with spending caps in place. All this despite the "reduced number" being substantially larger than just a couple years earlier. All sorts of dire predictions are made, and through an act of gross negligence, the sequestration law was written in a way to make the caps particularly painful - the idea being that Congress would just HAVE TO come up with an intelligent, comprehensive plan to bring spending to heel. Well, they didn't.
Now we have a majority Republican legislature, and by appearances they are going to bring appropriations bills to committee and scrutinize the line items as opposed to glomming it all together into a monster nobody reads.
Now the President is frustrated. I'll bet he is. Now he will have to sign or veto bills instead of letting Senator Reid do the dirty work while he gets to be a "statesman".
And the President is fed up with "Business as usual" and "gridlock"? Please. The President could have gone another way and chose this route purposely and after some internal deliberation. They were going to do it his way. I am reminded of when the President publicly lectured Senator McCain post-election (I forget the issue at hand), dismissing McCain's words with a reminder about who won the election. He didn't have to do that, but he did. And he seemed to savor the moment.
I could pile on here, because the ironies in the President's frustration are manifest and manifold.
Unfortunately, this malaise and the President's historical enmity towards the Clintons will make for some nastiness in the Primaries.
The country writ large and the military in particular have been treated very roughly these past fifteen years. Our standing in the world has fallen precipitously and our enemies are emboldened. A penny-ante band of pirates in the persons of the Islamic State, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab and others are mockingly advancing, knowing that we will do little more than drop a little ordinance. Our economy is nothing like it should be. Wages stagnate.
I hope, no I PRAY that whosoever the American people entrust with being the next steward of our great republic can pull us out of this morass and back to our rightful place as admired by our friends, feared and respected by our foes; magnanimous in peace and terrible in war. A nation that instills our values of liberty, loyal dissent, and a melting pot of cultures into a great union.
No party has a monopoly in good ideas. This game of brinksmanship has to end if we are to achieve greatness.
Rant over.
Later, of course, President Obama went a whole 'nother way. Holding both houses of Congress, he was able to see any legislation he wanted through. Congress promptly passed a preposterous, pork-filled nightmare of an $847 Billion stimulus package, then since that wasn't enough, a subsequent omnibus spending bill that tacked on another $400 Billion or so. That was before the Affordable Care Act. Congress has been stuck doing continuing resolutions ever since, RENEWING all of this spending annually.
Then along comes a Republican House, and sequestration is born. We are told how horrible it is and how the government can't possibly run with spending caps in place. All this despite the "reduced number" being substantially larger than just a couple years earlier. All sorts of dire predictions are made, and through an act of gross negligence, the sequestration law was written in a way to make the caps particularly painful - the idea being that Congress would just HAVE TO come up with an intelligent, comprehensive plan to bring spending to heel. Well, they didn't.
Now we have a majority Republican legislature, and by appearances they are going to bring appropriations bills to committee and scrutinize the line items as opposed to glomming it all together into a monster nobody reads.
Now the President is frustrated. I'll bet he is. Now he will have to sign or veto bills instead of letting Senator Reid do the dirty work while he gets to be a "statesman".
And the President is fed up with "Business as usual" and "gridlock"? Please. The President could have gone another way and chose this route purposely and after some internal deliberation. They were going to do it his way. I am reminded of when the President publicly lectured Senator McCain post-election (I forget the issue at hand), dismissing McCain's words with a reminder about who won the election. He didn't have to do that, but he did. And he seemed to savor the moment.
I could pile on here, because the ironies in the President's frustration are manifest and manifold.
Unfortunately, this malaise and the President's historical enmity towards the Clintons will make for some nastiness in the Primaries.
The country writ large and the military in particular have been treated very roughly these past fifteen years. Our standing in the world has fallen precipitously and our enemies are emboldened. A penny-ante band of pirates in the persons of the Islamic State, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab and others are mockingly advancing, knowing that we will do little more than drop a little ordinance. Our economy is nothing like it should be. Wages stagnate.
I hope, no I PRAY that whosoever the American people entrust with being the next steward of our great republic can pull us out of this morass and back to our rightful place as admired by our friends, feared and respected by our foes; magnanimous in peace and terrible in war. A nation that instills our values of liberty, loyal dissent, and a melting pot of cultures into a great union.
No party has a monopoly in good ideas. This game of brinksmanship has to end if we are to achieve greatness.
Rant over.
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Here's the root cause of why he feels this way - it's of his own making. He collaborated with (then) Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid to stonewall any movement on the Senate floor. Votes that he would be forced to veto, that he'd rather not...or republican ideas that he couldn't afford to have implemented and actually work - that would prove counterproductive to his own ideology.
This is a case of the sibling that picks a fight with his brother or sister and then runs crying to mommy that someone else started it! This man-child never should have been elevated to this office.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/aug/06/lynn-jenkins/rep-lynn-jenkins-blames-harry-reid-do-nothing-sena/
This is a case of the sibling that picks a fight with his brother or sister and then runs crying to mommy that someone else started it! This man-child never should have been elevated to this office.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/aug/06/lynn-jenkins/rep-lynn-jenkins-blames-harry-reid-do-nothing-sena/
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Yea and he did mention how the constitution has his hands all tied up, but he sure seems to get a lot of unconstitutional things passed, and he is still going on about how more gun control would have stopped that church shooting. If I recollect properly, most previous potus didn't get involved with personal verbal opinions on state murder crimes like Obama, just sending a representative for funerals if needed
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His vision is absolutely better then anything the republicans have or will come up with, the blatant and willful obstructionism has made everything harder. Certain republicans have even admitted its intentional.
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SSG Gerhard S.
Gas prices are actually darn close to what the we're in 2008 when Pres Obama was elected. Prices actually went up to nearly $4.00 per gallon while President Obama was in office. If you wish to attribute lower prices, do you also credit the higher prices to Pres Obama? Just curious.
On another note, do you recognize any Constitutional restraint on the actions of the executive branch? Should the Congress, a portion of which gets elected by the People every 2 years be subjugated, or ignored in favor of one man's "great visions"?
On another note, do you recognize any Constitutional restraint on the actions of the executive branch? Should the Congress, a portion of which gets elected by the People every 2 years be subjugated, or ignored in favor of one man's "great visions"?
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LTC David Brown
SSG Gerhard S. - I think gas prices are down because one, Saudi Arabia wants to screw over Russia and ISIS. I also think Saudi Arabia does not want America being energy independent. The Bakkan Oil field oil is costly . Suadi Arabia can produce oil much cheaper. This has as much to do with President Obama as tea prices in Russia.
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SSG Gerhard S.
LTC David Brown - Respectfully, I made no link to oil prices and to President Obama, I was merely inquiring if those who do, wish to attribute the record high prices to Pres Obama, as they wish to attribute the lower prices we're experiencing now. I have clearly stated elsewhere on Rally point on this subject that Oil prices are not set, or determined by one man, or by one country. Oil prices are a worldwide market commodity, and you are correct, Saudi Arabia, and others HAVE kept production up in an effort to drive down prices to make producing in more expensive environments such as the US and Canada less enticing. Traditionally, most US imports don't come from Saudi Arabia anyway. Canada is our largest oil importer,at 37 % last year, while Saudi Arabia only accounted for 13%. You are correct, producing oil in the US and in Canada where the crude has adjectives like "shale", and "sand" ARE more expensive to produce. Add to those refining costs the uber regulatory costs, higher wages, and higher corporate taxes in the US, and it is a wonder we were able to produce oil when it was going for $100.00 per bbl. So, I think we're actually in agreement Sir. Regards.
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