Monday, April 20, 2009
Obama Advisers Challenge G.O.P. to Offer Alternatives
Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel has given the Republicans in Congress a sort of ultimatum. He wants the party members to be constructive. Simply saying no or opposing Obama’s proposals are not constructive behavior. What Obama’s advisors want them to do is offer alternatives instead of only criticizing. And of course, Republicans argue that they have offered alternatives to Obama’s economic recovery plan. They also claim that they have already begun to work on a plan to make healthcare affordable to more Americans. We’ll have to wait and see.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think this is a hard case. When the GOP was in the majority, they made the same accusations about Democrats.
ReplyDeleteBoehner is correct. They have offered alternatives to the President's proposals. The problem is their proposals were either so far out of touch (e.g. the stimulus package, they offered a tax-cut only alternative) or they stumble politically (e.g. the budget alternative got more press for their botched press conference when they showed up without the alternative).
In one of the articles I posted this week, the authors made the case that the GOP is not even close to a health care alternative.
Do you think that this line of attack can work for the White House in the short term? Then once they make a mistake and the electorate's patience wears thin, the GOP will pounce and get a coherent message? It almost appears that they are happy to wait around for the Dems to fail.
I think this is a typical banter among parties. The Democrats sure could use a victory in Minnesota to help push their objectives, though that is a lose-lose situation in itself.
ReplyDelete