According to a NY TImes story today (snippets below), there are two factions in the WH pushing sharply different strategies heading into the 2012 elections. On one side, allegedly, are David Plouffe and Bill Daley, who urge focusing on the issue Republicans have been screaming about since before their midterm victories last year (deficit reduction). On the other side, allegedly, are Gene Sperling and other WH economists who urge pushing for renewed stimulus spending or other job creation policies, even though Republicans have a majority in the House and filibuster abuse in the Senate that give such legislation no chance of passage.
But even the Times admitted that there is a third strategy, voiced by WH communications director Dan Pfeiffer, that sees no sharp conflict between short-term job creation strategies and long-term deficit reduction strategies.
I would go much further than Pfeiffer. IMO, President Obama should say in speeches from now until Election Day something like this:
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Some people act as if we never had to deal with deficits and debt before now. But that's not true. Bill Clinton inherited a deep recession from another George Bush, whose budget deficits grew deeper every year that Bush was in the WH. Bill Clinton's fiscal policies reduced longer-term deficits gradually but dramatically and, by the end of his second term, had turned huge deficits into huge budget surpluses.
How did he do it? Not by sparing the very wealthy from paying their fair share of taxes. And not by cutting education and other investments for the future. He focused on short-term and longer-term job creation, and created 23 million jobs over his eight years in office.
When the unemployed get hired, they go from tax-users to taxpayers. Every one percent decline in the unemployment rate now reduces will the ten-year deficit by X billion dollars. We did it before, and we'll do it again, without preventing poor students from getting Pell grants for college, without turning Medicare into nearly-worthless vouchers for seniors, and without maintaining huge tax loopholes for corporate jet owners and hedge-fund managers.
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"White House Debates Fight on Economy By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM and HELENE COOPER NY Times August 14 2011
... Mr. Obamas senior adviser, David Plouffe, and his chief of staff, William M. Daley, want him to maintain a pragmatic strategy of appealing to independent voters by advocating ideas that can pass Congress, even if they may not have much economic impact. ... 'The presidents team puts a premium on being above the partisan fray, which is usually the right strategy,' said Senator Charles E. Schumer of NY.... 'But on this issue, when a rather small group on one side is blocking any progress, you have to be willing to call that group out if you want to get anything done.'
Dan Pfeiffer, the White House director of communications, said that there was no internal debate. 'The presidents first priority is to work with Republicans and Democrats to grow the economy, create jobs and reduce the deficit, but if the Republican House continues its 'my way or the highway' approach, he will make sure the public knows who is standing in the way and why.' ...
So far, most signs point to a continuation of the nonconfrontational approach better to do something than nothing that has defined this administration. Mr. Obama and his aides are skeptical that voters will reward bold proposals if those ideas do not pass Congress. It is their judgment that moderate voters want tangible results rather than speeches. ... A series of departures has left few economists among Mr. Obamas senior advisers. Several of his political advisers are skeptical about the merits of stimulus spending, and they are certain about the politics: voters do not like it. Mr. Plouffe and Mr. Daley share the view that a focus on deficit reduction is an economic and political imperative, according to people who have spoken with them. Voters believe that paying down the debt will help the economy, and the White House agrees, although it wants to avoid cutting too much spending while the economy remains weak. As part of this appeal to centrist voters, the president
intends to continue his push for a so-called grand bargain on deficit reduction ..."
Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/us/politics/14econ.html?pagewanted=print
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