By Clark S. Judge
I was on a BBC radio show last week. In a typical left-right paring, the other guest was a Cabinet-level veteran of the Clinton White House. After running through the Obama talking points, to my surprise he focused on the administration’s refusal to engage seriously with Congress. What is to be done this week? Several thoughts.
If I read him correctly, my counterpart put the lapse on the West Wing’s doorstep, not Congresses. He could not believe that the White House was not involved in any talks of any kind with GOP Congressional leadership.
The GOP’s targeted compromises have worked well. The White House and Congressional Democrats have positioned themselves obstructionist, a fatal place in any negotiation if you are seeking public support.
Now the markets and the media are focusing on the debt ceiling. You will drive the U.S. government into default, they cry.
So take the debt ceiling off the table. The House should pass a bill raising the ceiling now, at least for the purpose of paying interest on the debt, even as the shutdown continues. If the White House says no, the president is to blame for the default. If Obama takes the deal, the GOP has won a round without giving up any leverage.
Last week, as it maneuvered the Democrats into the obstructionist corner, the GOP lost sight of the two core positions of the week’s start.
- The first was equal treatment for everyone — no special exemptions for big businesses or anyone else unless everyone else got the same consideration.
- The second was to delay all implementation of the act by a year.
As Treasury secretary Jack Lew’s fumbling response confirmed when he was questioned yesterday on Fox News Sunday, the government isn’t even close to ready to sign people up and the public is not eager to be signed up. Both positions – equality and delay — poll overwhelmingly. Each represents a key compromise from the original defund-now stance, again making the administration the obstructionists.
On TV and radio and in their floor speeches, Congressional Republicans need to keep hitting on these themes. Against all odds, they have made tremendous progress so far. Now is the time to keep focused and keep it up.
So as with everything coming out of the MSM’s coverage of Washington during the Obama years, the truth is close to the opposite of the story. It is Congressional Republicans who have shown brave heart holding on against a massive assault. And, as it happens, it is the administration that closed the WWII memorial. The White House just needed to tell the Park Service employees manning the barricades to keep an eye on an open memorial instead.
Despite all that is coming down on them, the House GOP won this past week, and a momentum appears to be building in their favor. The president’s approval-disapproval scores are under water again.
Reporters are starting to ask administration spokespeople, why can’t you compromise?
Clark S. Judge is managing director of the White House Writers Group, and chairman of the Pacific Research Institute.
