Dems Root to Sabotage a “Super-Opportunity” to Make Washington Live Within Its Means

• Democrats are beginning a hyperbolic blame game to distract from their unwillingness to make Washington live within its means.
• The facts are clear: key Democrats on the deficit super-committee were “never really checked into the conversation,” never presented Republicans with a serious counter-offer and President Obama steered clear from offering leadership.
• After Democrats presided over the most rapid increase in the national debt in history, it’s hard to be surprised that they’re now the ones standing in the way of cutting spending to make Washington live within its means.

BACKGROUND

Democrats are beginning a hyperbolic blame game to distract from their unwillingness to make Washington live within its means:

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA) “EQUATES INCREASING TAXES TO MEN AND WOMEN DYING IN AFGHANISTAN”: (Daniel Halper, “John Kerry Equates Increasing Taxes to Men and Women Dying in Afghanistan,” The Weekly Standard, 11/20/2011)

FORMER WH CHIEF OF STAFF RAHM EMANUEL’S ALTERNATE REALITY: OBAMA “OFFERED A GRAND BARGAIN AND [GOP] REFUSED TO BARGAIN” BECAUSE OF “IDEOLOGY”: (“Rahm Emanuel: Obama Can’t Get Through to the ‘Partisan’ Republicans,” Real Clear Politics, 11/20/2011)

The facts are clear: key Democrats on the deficit super-committee were “never really checked into the conversation,” never presented Republicans with a serious counter-offer and President Obama steered clear from offering leadership:

REPS. JIM CLYBURN (D-SC) AND XAVIER BECERRA (D-CA) “NEVER REALLY CHECKED INTO THE CONVERSATION”: “Two super-committee members – Reps. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) — never really checked into the conversation, according to numerous participants on both sides. A Democrat explained: ‘There’s a basic threshold for our guys that any deal has to be better than what would happen with no deal. There were some folks who never really saw us get close to [that] threshold.’ ” (Mike Allen, Politico’s “Playbook”, 11/20/2011)

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD) “THREW COLD WATER ON EVERYONE ELSE’S IDEAS”: “On the other side, [Rep. Chris] Van Hollen [D-Md.)] actually looked like he was going to participate. But about three or four weeks ago, he came to the conclusion that we weren’t going to get anywhere, and started throwing cold water on everyone else’s ideas. You had Kerry and [Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max] Baucus [D-Mont.], who seemed to be the only two who were sort of really interested in seeing if there was a way to cut a deal. Baucus would say things that made you think, ‘OK, we can work with this guy.’ And then he would go back to his office and either talk to somebody, or get yanked back, and then he would come back and would start from ground zero again.” (Mike Allen, Politico’s “Playbook”, 11/20/2011)

“WHITE HOUSE WAS MOSTLY HANDS OFF”: “Through all this, the White House was mostly hands-off. One Democrat said President Obama gave the committee ‘a lot of autonomy.’ Another Democrat: ‘It was kind of the opposite of the debt ceiling. Instead of really haggling, inserting himself into the actual haggling back-and-forth, he intervened kind of surgically to draw clear lines at a couple points that we felt put us in a good negotiating position.'” (Mike Allen, Politico’s “Playbook”, 11/20/2011)

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): “WE WANT TO SEE THE PRESIDENT TAKE THE LEADERSHIP”: “It can’t be about are you a good Democrat or good Republican? We needed to be a good West Virginiaian, and now we need to be a good American. It’s about our country. So, we can’t worry about the next election. It should be the next generation. Everything we do here is worried about the next election. How it’s going to affect them, who would help, who can they blame? This is not the blame game, and you never fixed a thing by blaming people. So, yes we want to see the president take the leadership.” (Remarks from Sen. Joe Manchin, CBS’ “Face The Nation”, 11/20/2011)

HOW DID WE GET HERE? AS RECENTLY AS LAST WEEK, DEMOCRATS WERE ADMITTING THEY HAD NO PLAN AND WERE DISUNITED:

SUPERCOMMITTEE MEMBER REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): “DEMOCRATS HAVE NOT COALESCED AROUND A PLAN”: (Billy House and Michael Catalini, “What if Super Committee Fails? Members Suggest Congress Would Rethink Sequestration,” National Journal, 11/14/2011)

SUPERCOMMITTEE MEMBER XAVIER BECERRA (D-CA) ADMITTED THAT DEMOCRATS HAD NOT OFFERED THEIR OWN PROPOSAL: (David Fahrenthold, Felicia Sonmez and Paul Kane, “Supercommittee Members Face Rising Pressure From All Sides,” The Washington Post, 11/15/2011)

DEMS “LESS UNITED AND STRUGGLING TO COME UP WITH A COUNTEROFFER”: “Republicans in both chambers embraced a plan devised by Senator Patrick J. Toomey, one of their party’s representatives on the panel. Democrats appeared to be less united and struggling to come up with a counteroffer.” (Jennifer Steinhauer and Robert Pear, “G.O.P. is Optimistic but Democrats are Glum on Deficit Panel,” The New York Times, 11/16/2011)

DEMS “HADN’T MADE A DETAILED RESPONSE” TO REPUBLICAN’S SUPERCOMMITTEE PROPOSAL. “Republicans expressed frustration that Democrats hadn’t made a detailed response to their proposal, which would cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion and include $250 billion in tax increases, a deal they offered as a major retreat from their no-new-taxes pledge.” (Janet Hook, “Gimmicks Could Help Rescue Deficit Talks,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/16/2011)

“UNCLEAR WHETHER A FORMAL PROPOSAL FROM DEMOCRATS WAS IMMINENT”: (John Stanton, “Pelosi: Super Committee’s Real Deadline is Friday,” Roll Call, 11/14/2011)

BOTH SIDES SAY WHITE HOUSE HAS BEEN UNINVOLVED: “The White House has played close to no role behind the scenes of the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, according to senior House and Senate aides on both sides of the aisle.” (Steven T. Dennis and Meredith Shiner, “White House Stays Out Of Deficit Panel,” Roll Call, 11/2/2011)

“PANEL IS AT AN IMPASSE, BUT OBAMA SEES NO REASON TO STEP IN” AND PROVIDE LEADERSHIP: (Jackie Calmes, “Panel is at an Impasse, but Obama Sees No Reason to Step In,” The New York Times, 11/9/2011)

After Democrats presided over the most rapid increase in the national debt in history, it’s hard to be surprised that they’re now the ones standing in the way of cutting spending to make Washington live within its means:

NATIONAL DEBT HAS NOW INCREASED $4.4 TRILLION UNDER OBAMA’S WATCH. (U.S. Department of the Treasury, TreasuryDirect.gov, Accessed 11/18/2011)

OBAMA DEBT BURDEN “THE MOST RAPID INCREASE IN THE DEBT UNDER ANY U.S. PRESIDENT.” (Mark Knoller, “National Debt Has Increased $4 Trillion Under Obama,” CBS News, 8/22/2011)

“NATIONAL DEBT CROSSES $15 TRILLION MARK”: “The total public debt outstanding was listed at $15,033,607,255,920.32 on Wednesday afternoon, with two thirds of that debt held by the public and one third made up of intergovernmental holdings.” (Brian Montopoli, “National Debt Crosses $15 Trillion Mark,” CBS News, 11/16/2011)

“NATIONAL DEBT NEARS SIZE OF U.S. ECONOMY”; TRANSLATION: GOV. ABOUT TO “OWE MORE THAN [WE] PRODUCE IN A YEAR”: “A debt-to-GDP ratio of 98% is bad enough. It puts the U.S. closer to rarified territory — countries that owe more than they produce in a year.” (Richard Wolf, “National Debt Nears Size of U.S. Economy,” USA Today, 10/29/2011)