GOP’s Next Attack Line: Obama Administration Has Too Many Plans, Not Enough Cohesion
Okay, this is interesting. The chief spokesperson for GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell just said in an interview that leading Republicans are going to ratchet up their criticism of the Obama administration for releasing too many big plans on the economy — with too little sense of how they mesh with or impact each other.
The comments from McConnell spokesperson Don Stewart amount to a preview of what we’ll likely be hearing from Senate Republicans and other Republican leaders in the days ahead.
“We can’t help but notice the numerous and sundry plans that seem to come out at a rate of one a week without any clear picture of how they interact and whether they interact well or not,” Stewart told me. “That’s a very real concern among Senate Republicans.”
Though this case has been occasionally made by isolated GOPers, Stewart said that Republicans would be making a concerted effort to hammer this line of criticism. “I think you’ll hear more and more concerns raised about this until there’s an answer or a general framework that makes sense,” he said.
The evolving Republican plan here appears to be to try to “connect the dots,” as one GOP aide put it, between the different Obama administration plans to try to impress on the public how expensive they are when taken all together. This week, the Obama administration floated plans for the use of huge sums of public money to get private investors to buy up “toxic” real estate assets and for governmental take-overs of non-bank financial institutions.
Democrats, naturally, will likely jump on the “too many plans” aspect of this GOP critique to press their case that only Dems are offering real solutions while Republicans are advancing only attacks.
I’ve checked in with the Democratic National Committee for comment. More soon.
Update: The DNC opens fire.
The homepage of this blog is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
Once again, remind me what the GOP plan is for solving this crisis?
The GOP plan is to attack Obama and block him as much as possible, of course. Their concern is with elections, not people or country.
except that all economists do agree that one plan does not work without the other. These republicans are all about Hoover, either let’s do nothing or let’s just do one thing at a time. Thank god they are not in charge.
Here is the only problem. And really this is the reason they complain about President Obama being “overexposed”. Every time he goes on TV he hammers his priorities. Health Care, Education, Green Energy and not necessarily in that order. This has some what of an imprinting effect. If you ask the average person who watches the news what President Obamas top priorities are most of them will rattle off those three without hesitation. Many of those who can name the priorities will also be able to name why they are important. Health Care will bankrupt the country, Green Energy because foreign oil is dangerous, Education because we have to compete global economy.
.
And the irony is that every week the GOP comes out with a new attack line which makes THEM look incoherent and out of touch. Polling suggests that most people support health care reform, green energy reform and education reform so the truth is they are going to lose if they keep trying to push that attack line.
By the way, if Lee Atwater were alive and a Democrat today he would slaughter the Republicans over the budget. He would put an attack ad out implying that opposing green energy was making foreign dictators stronger and more emboldened. He would show young men as criminals and point to the embattled state of our education system as being the reason. He would show elderly people being told they had to do without health care because we have run out of money for medicare and medicaid. I hate to say it but sometimes I wish the Democratic party had that killer instinct.
the party of NO is gonna ***** because they hate it when government WORKS for the PEOPLE, instead of insider pay to play special interest. and i notice the gop’s EKG drops another notch as they drift into the abyss of irrelevance!
“That’s a very real concern among Senate Republicans….”
“….because we have no plans.”
There, I finished his sentence for him.
Alas, with this new “strategy” the Congressional Republicans are admitting they are a party of little minds and little men! -Kevo
I’m starting to detect a certain sense of frustration among Republicans: they keep coming up with one talking point after another, designed to drag Obama down, and yet his approval ratings remain consistently strong. Meanwhile, the Obama team has been steadily pushing a single message – the Republicans as the “party of no” – which has been largely successful.
sgwhiteinfla: We don’t need Lee Atwater; we have Barack Obama. Check out the polls: he’s already slaughtering the Republicans over the budget, and he’s doing it without appealing to America’s baser instincts. Once he wins the budget battle, too, the health care battle is won, as well, because all of the money for health care reform has been pre-allocated in Obama’s budget.
buddhisMonkey
.
I am not necessarily talking about Barack Obama but instead his policies. One thing that goes underreported is that approval of President Obama’s policies lag far behind his own personal approval ratings. Thats where a Democratic Lee Atwater would help. Along with the mid term elections next year. I like Plouffe a lot but I think sometimes you need to be a little edgier to make a point.
Lyndon Johnson, in responding to GOP opposition to his proposals, said that it is hard to build things, but “any jackass can kick down a barn.”
I hope the Repubs continue to prance around yelling that health care is not a right, but a privilege. That will go over well with the 87 million Americans who do not have health insurance. How the Repubs think they are going to win back voters with the same old same old just shows how out of touch they really are with “we the people”.
Dems’ Next Attack Line: GOP has no plans or solutions whatsoever, and superb cohesion, but only in the name of partisan obstruction.
I know who *I* think will win this battle for Americans’ hearts and minds….
Greg
It’s not surprising to see this line of attack expanded. We’ll likely see variations on “punch drunk” come with it all to the purpose of trying to suggest immense confusion and overwhelm on the part of Dems (they can’t administer effectively) and Obama – his pretty constant equanimity and cool confidence are characteristics which they have to somehow turn around in people’s conceptionalizing because they know how this is what people need to see in a leader (think back over the last eight years and how they did everything imaginable to try and convince people Bush had such characteristics).
I can’t help but notice that, despite the sturm und drang and constant partisan hyperventilating occurring all around him, President Obama goes calmly, affably, rationally and determinedly on his way, simply continuing to do what he believes is right. My fellow Americans, *this* is leadership.
this is funny. the gop has no plans but many criticisms!
The last eight years have shown us what happens when you only have one plan to solve everything. Cheney/Bush “solved” every problem by going out and killing someone. You can see where that got us.
What is frustrating to the GOP plans for going all out with “NO” is that Obama is not responding with frustrating matching theirs. They really want Obama to fail (either personally or having his policies do so) so that they have a platform during the next elections which will be to say “we told you so”. That is their plan and agenda “we told you so”.
One important point overlooked by the media is Obama has asked time and again for the opposition to give him a viable alternative plan, but not the same old tired policies that got us into this mess. The 3-pillars of his economic plan address long-term fiscal stability. It is going to take spending money a lot of it now, but will save money in the long-run.
Yet Republicans oppose spending. Their newest gimmick: freeze spending for 3 years … while the economy is contracting?
I would like the press to make them to explain how that would help jump start the economy and create jobs when millions are losing their jobs, their homes, their retirement 401 Ks and life savings? People have no money. If there is no demand tax cuts will not help businesses grow, hire new people or stimulate investment.
It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that. It is common sense. Unfortunately sometimes common sense gets set aside in the heat of the moment.
Freezing spending and cutting taxes do not address the core structural problems. Our economy tanked because it was built on sand. Obama expects the GOP to bring new and innovative ideas to the table, not the same ideas and flawed policies that created a bubble-and-bust economy which he categorically rejects.
For too long Washington resisted making tough decisions. Politicians kept putting off things that required attention. And now those things have deteriorated to the point where they can no longer be ignored. Obama has no choice but to tackle all of this at once. Yes it will cost money. But it will be money well-spent.
Hi there, I found your blog via Google while searching for first aid for a heart attack and your post looks very interesting for me.