When Is Triangulation Not Triangulation?
When Obama does it apparently. My friend Booman writes:
But if the bill is already as good as passed, then why are Democrats stripping elements of the bill out? The short answer is that it is politics. The Obama administration would like to get a big vote in favor of the stimulus for three reasons. They want to demonstrate the efficacy of their post-partisan rhetoric, they want to get some cover for the Democrats in case the stimulus doesn't work, and they want to splinter the GOP caucus on the first big vote of their administration. For all these reasons (tone, politics, demonstration of power), they are willing to make some generous and unnecessary concessions. We may not like or agree with these concessions, but we should try to understand the game that is being played.
Sounds pretty Bill Clinton Third Wayish to me. Of course, what is missing from that analysis is what Bill Clinton did in his first economic plan and the fact that the Third Way Bill Clinton emerged after Republicans captured the Congress. More . . .
In 1993, Bill Clinton spearheaded the passage of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993. The substantive provisions of the bill were largely a lowering of taxes on the poorest Americans through the EITC, raising of energy taxes and the raising of the top marginal tax rates. Republicans predicted economic disaster as a result of this legislation and not a single Republican in the Congress, no Republican Congressman or Senator, voted for the legislation.
What proposals of the Republicans and the Blue Dogs did President Clinton reject?
Some alternatives to the bill included a proposal by Senator David Boren (D-OK), which among other things would have kept much of the tax increase on upper-income payers but would have eliminated all energy tax increases while also scaling back the Earned Income Tax Credit. It was endorsed by Bill Cohen (R-ME), Bennett Johnston (D-LA), and John Danforth (R-MO). Boren's proposal never passed committee.
Another proposal was offered in the House of Representatives by John Kasich (R-OH). He sponsored an amendment that would have reduced the deficit by cutting $355 billion in spending with $129 billion of the cuts coming from entitlement programs (the actual bill cut entitlement spending by only $42 billion). The amendment would have eliminated any tax increases. The amendment failed by a 138-295 vote with many Republicans voting against the amendment and only six Democrats voting in favor of the amendment.
President Clinton eschewed "triangulation" in this important economic legislation. At least symbolically, President Obama is embracing it. It may be that President Obama, at least in terms of political optics, is taking the right approach. But it does amuse me to see inveterate Clinton haters like Booman justify triangulation by Obama when they pronounce deep hatred for the Clintons, based mostly on the claim that Bill Clinton was the "Great Triangulator."
I think the apt phrase is cognitive dissonance.
Speaking for me only
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