Sometimes things spin out of control, after which they spin into control. So if you can't actually pass the vast majority of what you need to pass, well, just make the most out of what you can. It's the oldest trick in the book, which works out just fine, when you can't teach an old dog new tricks. And so we have a Democratic president presiding over the slo-mo dismantlement of the New Deal and the American middle class patting himself on the back so hard, he almost breaks his arm, as TPM reports:
Obama Touts Lame-Duck Session Accomplishments: 'I Am Persistent'
Eric Kleefeld | December 22, 2010, 5:32PM
At a press conference this afternoon, President Obama touted the accomplishments of the past several weeks, and sought to rebut any impression that he had been diminished as president after the midterm election results.
"A lot of folks in this town predicted that after the midterm elections, Washington would be headed for more partisanship and more gridlock," said Obama. "And instead this has been a season of progress for the American people."
It was a very different Obama compared to his press conference two weeks ago, when he tongue-lashed liberals he described as "purist" and "sanctimonious" for criticizing him for making too many compromises with Republicans.
As his key examples today, Obama cited the compromise package with Republicans on extending tax cuts and unemployment benefits, the repeal of the ban on gays serving in the military, the ratification of the New START nuclear weapons treaty, and the food safety bill.
"So I think it's fair to say that this has been the most productive post-election period that we've had in decades, and it comes on the heels of the most productive two years that we've had in generations."
Okay, reality-check time, boys and girls:
(1) As I noted yesterday ("Dean Baker takes a look at the stimulus that isn't there"), the tax deal is pretty much a bust as far as stimulating the economy is concerned, which is what it's being touted for now. It's a defeat of one of Obama's key campaign promises. The unemployment benefit extensions--which up until just this year have always been utterly automatic--don't help over 2 million people, whose benefits have run out (the 99ers). And--as Krugman pointed out last week--it shifts the expected economic growth pattern of the next two years from one that benefits Obama's re-election to one that undercuts it.
(2) The repeal of DADT was historic---for the United States. But for Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, The Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, or the United Kingdom... not so much.
(3) The START Treaty barely moves the ball forward at all over the expired treaty--passed under George H.W. Bush--especially compared to the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons entirely, a position supported by such wild-eyed radicals as Henry Kissinger and George P. Schultz.
(4) Food Safety. Who could be against that? So why did it take till the last minute to pass?
(5) Ditto for the issue of health care funding 9/11 Responders, not mentioned in the passage above. How, exactly, is last-minute passage of this not a disgrace? Less of a disgrace than not passing it at all, obviously. But still a disgrace.
And what was that last bit again?
"So I think it's fair to say that this has been the most productive post-election period that we've had in decades, and it comes on the heels of the most productive two years that we've had in generations."
Oh, yeah:
That's productive, all right. Look, Obama may have gotten a lot passed despite this level of obstruction, but this was a time of historic need as well as opportunity, and that has to be the standard by which we judge. Nothing on global warming? Nothing on immigration but a worsening of Bush enforcement policies? And the stimulus that was, as Krugman put it on the Rachel Maddow Show this week, about 1/3 the size it needed to be. That alone represented a huge legislative failure, not a success, because, as Krugman himself warned at the time, there was no chance for a do-over, and as a result, we're looking at prolonged period of stagnation, ala Japan's "lost decade" that was completely preventable. No way that counts as an "accomplishment". No way. That was a failure of epic proportions.
And then, when we turn from the supposedly monumental to the mundane, what do we see? A pathetically low rate of judicial confirmations, and we don't even have a budget for next year. Which is so subnormal it's ridiculous.
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