XPost: alt.politics.obama, alt.politics.usa, alt.tv.pol-incorrect
From: sid9@
"Ubiquitous" wrote in message
news:jn3dmd$8hf$3@dont-email.me...
> "An increasing number of Democrats are taking potshots at President
> Obama's healthcare law ahead of a Supreme Court decision that could
> overturn it," the Hill reports:
>
> "I think we would all have been better off--President Obama
> politically, Democrats in Congress politically, and the nation
> would have been better off — if we had dealt first with the
> financial system and the other related economic issues and
> then come back to healthcare," said Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.),
> who is retiring at the end of this Congress. . . .
>
> Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) also criticized his party's
> handling of the issue, and said he repeatedly called on his
> leaders to figure out how they were going to pay for the bill,
> and then figure out what they could afford.
>
> Cardoza, who like Miller will retire at the end of the Congress,
> said he thought the bill should have been done "in digestible
> pieces that the American public could understand and that we
> could implement."
>
> The most recent wave of misgivings from Democrats began with
> Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who told New York magazine that
> Democrats "paid a terrible price for healthcare."
>
> Frank, of course, is leaving Congress too. But the administration has its
> defenders:
>
> Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.), for example, took issue with
> [Sen. Jim] Webb's suggestion that the president should have
> given Congress more direction on the issue. Webb said the way
> the law was passed "cost Obama a lot of credibility as a
> leader."
>
> "Maybe if you weren't on one of the committees you wouldn't
> have known that, but the administration was super involved
> with it," said Schwartz, who served on the Ways and Means
> Committee when the healthcare law was approved.
>
> Though come to think of it, noting that Obama was "super involved" with
> this monstrosity may not be the best way of helping his imperiled
> re-election effort.
>
>
> --
> "If Barack Obama isn't careful, he will become the Jimmy Carter of the
> 21st century."
>
>
__________________________________________
Romney, the equivalent of "Mystery Meat" or "Pink Slime"
No one knows what's in it!
April 23, 2012
SPIN METER: Romney Roadmap Leaves Voters Guessing
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON (AP) — Mitt Romney's roadmap for governing the country is so vague
that it has even Republican allies questioning his intentions.
"You have to campaign to govern, not just to win," Indiana Gov. Mitch
Daniels said in recent days after endorsing Romney. "Go ahead and have the
confidence in the voters to explain the fix we're in and then tell them with
some specificity what we can do to get out of it in a way that's good for
everybody. Romney doesn't talk that way."
It's a sentiment other Republicans decline to express so publicly, and
Daniels later downplayed his comment. But it's one that accurately describes
the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's general aversion to
detail.
In between heaping criticism on President Barack Obama, Romney spent the
primary season sketching a broad conservative vision for leading the country
should he win the White House. Supporters cheer his general plans for lower
taxes, smaller government, a stronger military and a reduced federal
deficit. But he's offered few detailed prescriptions on a range of the
country's most pressing concerns from Social Security to potential military
action in Iran. And in some cases where Romney and his aides have been
specific, the former Massachusetts governor offers little significant change
from the Democratic president he says is killing the American dream.
The tactic is, of course, by design for a candidate eager to make the
general election a referendum on Obama's first term. The less voters know
about Romney, the more they may focus on Obama. By avoiding difficult policy
decisions, Romney gives his opponents less fuel for political attacks.
The Obama campaign has noticed. And as the president's team works to tie
Romney to the GOP's more conservative wing, Democrats are aggressively
criticizing what they call Romney's "secrecy strategy."
"Mitt Romney's campaign has been based on one thing — deceptively attacking
the president's record. He's been purposefully vague about what he'd do as
president," Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said. "If he
wants to be taken seriously in this race, he needs to put money where his
mouth is and provide some honest answers."
The Romney campaign says it has been more forthcoming than Obama in some
areas, particularly on budget fixes for entitlement programs. Indeed, Obama
has not proposed comprehensive plans to address the financial problems
facing either Social Security or Medicare.
Romney has not done much better, however.
He has introduced a Medicare plan that transforms the popular health care
program for seniors into a voucher system, but declines to say how much
seniors may have to pay out of pocket. On Social Security, he says generally
that he would raise the retirement age "for future generations."
The fuzzy positions are consistent with Romney's pattern of embracing
politically popular choices — tax cuts and smaller government, for example —
while ignoring the realities he would face as president, such as how to pay
for those tax cuts or regulate business to prevent another economic
meltdown. His campaign refuses to say whether he will offer specifics in
some cases even before the November election.
Perhaps the most glaring example is on taxes.
Romney has released a plan to cut personal income tax rates by 20 percent
across the board, dropping the top rate from 35 percent to 28 percent and
the bottom rate from 10 percent to 8 percent. He also wants to cut the
corporate rate from 35 to 25 percent.
The proposal, of course, is likely to win support on both sides of the
aisle. Few people enjoy paying higher taxes.
But Romney has refused to say how he would pay for the plan, which would
cost roughly $3.4 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the Tax
Policy Center. He promises to find savings through broadening the tax base,
including reducing some tax deductions. But so far, he has only hinted in
closed settings as to where that money might come from.
Romney told donors at a private Palm Beach, Fla., fundraiser that he would
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