{"id":207,"date":"2014-11-06T08:54:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T14:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/11\/a-100-days-agenda.html"},"modified":"2015-02-26T23:05:42","modified_gmt":"2015-02-27T05:05:42","slug":"a-100-days-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/11\/a-100-days-agenda.html","title":{"rendered":"A 100 Days Agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Will he or won\u2019t he?<\/i>\u00a0 That\u2019s what I was thinking this morning (I do my thinking in the shower, of course) \u2014 \u201cwill Obama choose the nuclear option of a December executive-order amnesty?\u201d<\/p>\n

And the discussion around this centers around a couple angles:\u00a0 Does Obama care that he\u2019d be poisoning the well, or does he figure that he\u2019s not going to do any constructive bipartisan work over the next two years anyway, so the most he can do is position his party for 2016?\u00a0 Does he really want amnesty as a personal legacy, or was he just playing the Latino voting block?\u00a0 (By the way, when did the term move from Hispanic to Latino anyway?)\u00a0 What can the Republicans do to punish him, and how much would this become a game of chicken come January?\u00a0 And do Obama\u2019s delusions favor him in that game of chicken, both inspiring him to play it, and convincing him he\u2019d win it, and, by his determination to achieve a personal victory vs. concern for the greater good, actually have an edge?<\/p>\n

And the bigger picture question is \u201cwill Obama work with the Republicans?\u201d\u00a0 The answer that I\u2019m seeing from the Left (e.g., Slate<\/a> and The Nation<\/a> and their commenters) is a big no \u2014 not because Obama is a bad person, but because the Republicans are.\u00a0 In their minds, Obama has bent over backwards to accommodate them (somewhat delusionally believing that he incorporated their wishes into Obamacare, I guess because it\u2019s not single-payer, for instance), to no avail, and the GOP agenda is so fundamentally wrong (all about making billionaires into multi-billionaires, and enslaving women and minorities, I guess) as to be almost morally wrong to even talk to them.\u00a0 Is that reflective of what Obama thinks?\u00a0 Probably not, but that does mean that, from his base, even if not from moderate Democrats reeling from the shellacking, he\u2019ll get plenty of support for an imagined cause of standing firm.<\/p>\n

But the game has changed.<\/p>\n

When the Republicans controlled only the House, Obama\u2019s role was to work with them to find ways of reaching shared goals that were acceptable to both parties.\u00a0 But really, in many ways, he was a bystander, as Reid (most recently by just plain inaction) and previously Pelosi as well, ran the show.<\/p>\n

At this point, there are a number of possible bills that have enough support that Republicans could pass them \u2014 that is, bills that they should be able to find a sufficient number of Democratic votes to break presumed filibusters.\u00a0 The pundits, in fact, keep mentioning bills that the House has already passed that Reid won\u2019t even bring up for consideration because he doesn\u2019t want members of his party to be required to have a vote on the record, which is bound to alienate either the base or independents.\u00a0 Keystone, for instance \u2014 others aren\u2019t mentioned, or I\u2019d list these, but I find it believable.\u00a0 But I can think of others.\u00a0 It seems to me that Obama via executive order waived No Child Left Behind into nonexistence, but it still exists on the books, so it seems like this ought to be ripe for a fix.\u00a0 The multitude of provisions of Obamacare that Obama has executive-ordered away.\u00a0 My pet pension-pooling legislation.\u00a0 Start with the easy things, then move into more difficult issues, again continuing to bring in moderate Democrats who are willing to cross the metaphorical picket line.\u00a0 And repeatedly \u2014 keep a pace going, ambitiously, one per week.\u00a0 Lots of smaller bills.\u00a0 Individual topics, wherever possible, but build up to bigger issues, and add a few pieces that\u2019d rile up Obama and his base individually (e.g., removing the abortion requirements in Obamacare), but are presented as part of a must-pass bill.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen it suggested elsewhere that instead of one big monstrosity, the 2015 budget should be passed piecemeal, to prevent horse-trading and take away Obama\u2019s veto power and the risk of a showdown.\u00a0 (What\u2019s he going to do?\u00a0 Refuse to sign a DoD appropriation by complaining that the Department of Education isn\u2019t being funded at the same time?)<\/p>\n

And pair this with a campaign over the airwaves.\u00a0 \u201cTell President Obama to sign the Keystone bill.\u00a0 Time is ticking.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve reformed Obamacare.\u00a0 Tell the president to do his job and sign the bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, Obama likes to say that Congress isn\u2019t \u201cdoing their job\u201d when they don\u2019t pass legislation that meets his specifications, so, heck, the GOP could turn that right back and say, \u201cObama has one job \u2014 to get his pen out and sign the bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, at this point it looks like the GOP will have 54 seats, so it\u2019ll require various permutations of 6 moderate Democrats voting with them, or at least declining to filibuster.\u00a0 That why I say, \u201cstart small.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n

And this still doesn\u2019t answer the executive-order amnesty question.\u00a0 Truth is, based on what I\u2019ve seen so far, including his bizarre press conference (Ann Althouse has the transcript<\/a>) in which he indicated his willingness to work with the GOP \u2013 as long as they endorse his priorities, like government-paid preschool, the answer is \u201cwill.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will he or won\u2019t he?\u00a0 That\u2019s what I was thinking this morning (I do my thinking in the shower, of course) \u2014 \u201cwill Obama choose the nuclear option of a December executive-order amnesty?\u201d And the discussion around this centers around a couple angles:\u00a0 Does Obama care that he\u2019d be poisoning the well, or does he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[156],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2014-election"],"yoast_head":"\nA 100 Days Agenda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Will he or won't he?  That's what I was thinking this morning (I do my thinking in the shower, of course) -- "will Obama choose the nuclear option of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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