Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is a political operative, not a legislator. We'd like to be able to say differently, but when sifting through his statements, there's nothing we can find that's helpful to moving this country forward. President Clinton talked about cooperation and conflict, in which conflict makes for good politics, and that is Mr. McConnell's forte, creating conflict. It's unfortunate because Americans obviously need a lot more 'leadership' from their leaders right now and the creation of conflict is unhelpful. Mr. McConnell reminded us that the election is not this year, but next year and there are steps that legislators can take to help the economy before then.
To remove the 'wet blanket,' as the Senator termed it, over the economy, Mr. McConnell focused on tax and entitlement reform, but there's so much more that needs to be done to get the economy back on track. When you pair these two reforms together it is simply a money shuffle, eventually transferring from one group to another. The goal for tax reform, in Republican terms,
is to lower the tax rate, not necessarily make it more fair. As we've seen for the past thirty years, lowering the tax rate has not increased middle-America's earnings. Simply doing tax reform will not put people back to work. Entitlement reform is a euphemism for decreasing benefits. These aren't notions that people don't understand, they're quite banal, but for whatever reason the general public looks beyond these truths.
Mr. Gregory wanted to get the Senator's reaction to a clip from earlier this week in which John Boehner in a speech first said that the 'my way or the highway' approach to politics is not good for the country and then later said that tax increases were 'off the table,' talking 'out of two side of his mouth.' Mr. McConnell parried on the question and went back into tax reform. But later in the interview, Mr. McConnell said this,
"...I would simply go back to what the President said last December and signing a two-year extension of the current tax rates is a bad thing to do in the middle of an economic downturn. and of course the economy somewhat argues even worse now than it was when the President signed the extension of the current tax rates back in December."
That's a direct quote and it makes no sense, it's 'talking out of the two sides of your mouth.' The President said that signing this tax extension is bad for the economy, something that Republicans wanted. Then Mr. McConnell turns around then says that because of this tax extension, the indication from the economy, is that they made it worse and he blamed the President?
The Republicans will get these two reforms out of the President in negotiations. The other reality is that the President will not get the concessions that he is seeking from Republicans, and this is why the President's reelection is tenuous.
Even President Clinton, the answer man, couldn't really come up with any additional solutions, as per his usual, in terms of the other side of the equation - cooperation. He did endorse President Obama's job plan, but didn't seem convinced that the President could sell it. Mr. Clinton could sell it, because his presentation of the facts breathes authority. He explained that an economic downturn such as we had usually takes 5 years to recover from, but also that a broad range of economists say that we'll have growth of 1.4 to 2 percent if we enact the President's proposals. Sadly, Mr. Obama could say that same thing and no one would believe it.
Mr. Clinton also said that for the President to be reelected, he has to win the argument to the American people that his plan is sound, and that it is Republicans who have done nothing but obstruct. (This is given the 9.1% unemployment rate.) Cooperation was certainly not part of the answer on how Mr. President Obama could win.
New York Times White Correspondent Helene Cooper said that the voters will not tolerate doing nothing, and that falls squarely on the President. Even if he does successfully make the argument, as Mr. Clinton advised, the public will go with the person that they believe can get something done with regard to the economy. As it stands, they don't believe that that person is Barack Obama. Whom ever the Republican nominee given the current field, that individual instantly has the advantage over the President even if his or her 'do something' doesn't do anything. Just making the claim may be good enough.
Round Table: Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-MI), Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, Senior political analyst for TIME Magazine, Mark Halperin and NY Times White House Correspondent Helene Cooper. The Buffett Rule
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