Democratic Caucus Angry At the White House

The Obama team has handled their caucuses poorly since the beginning of their administration. President Barack Obama and his team not informing the Democratic caucuses that they made a deal with Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts was a move that created bad blood. Sen. Diane Feinstein told CNN that she could not get a straight answer from Jacob Lew on the White House negotiations with Republicans on the debt ceiling.

"Are discussions going on or not?" she said. "We couldn't get an answer. Then you pick up the morning paper and all you see right-hand (side), above the fold, front page (is) about all these discussions going on. It's hard. It's hard."

The CNN article backs up previous reports that Democrats went ballistic on Lew. The White House fails to realize that Democrats still control the Senate. House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have shown in the past that they cannot deliver their caucuses. Republicans place fear of the tea party over fiscal sanity. These Republicans figure their nay votes are safe because enough Democrats will pass vote to raise the debt ceiling. That is less likely with Obama offering entitlement cuts and no concessions from Republicans.

Benjamin Kirby offers this argument on Obama's strategy.

The president offered to cut Medicare and Social Security -- central tenets of Democratic policy and politics -- and yet the other side apparently doesn't have the capacity to accept a deal. I know progressive bloggers whose heads are exploding right now. They have totally turned on Obama and his supporters. From my view, it's about making a deal before we essentially destroy the republic.

Obama doesn't have to offer anything. Boehner and McConnell have made it clear that they intend to raise the debt ceiling. They know Wall Street will cut off campaign contributions to the GOP if the debt ceiling is not raised. There are enough Democrats and Republican Wall Street lackeys to raise the debt ceiling. Many Republicans will not vote to raise the debt ceiling once they know McConnell and Boehner have the votes. It doesn't matter as long as the debt ceiling is raised.

Obama is offering entitlement cuts because he is triangulating. I wrote that Obama extended the Bush tax cuts because he wanted to appeal to independent voters. If Obama really cared about the debt and budget deficit he would have never extended the tax cuts. This is why Obama isn't going after tax cuts for top earners. Obama is as unserious about the debt as Marco Rubio.

Push Back From Social Security & Medicare Cuts

The Washington Post reports that White House sources have admitted that they are seeking a deal "to the right of the Gang of Six."

Congressional and administration officials said the White House informed Democratic leaders about the talks after Obama met privately with Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) late Wednesday. Congressional aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity to detail private discussions, said the White House acknowledged that the emerging agreement is “to the right of the Gang of Six” — a bipartisan Senate debt-reduction framework unveiled this week — and far removed from what Democrats have said would be acceptable.

WaPo and the Wall Street Journal report that Senate Democrats went off on OMB Director Jacob Lew. The reason being is that Obama and Republicans are negotiating decreases in cost of increasing rates to Medicare and Social Security. In exchange, Obama gets no tax increases for giving two Democratic sacred cows to the Republicans to carve up. It appears that the Democratic caucus will not go for it. For now.

After a lunchtime meeting between Lew and Senate Democrats, Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) made no attempt to hide his anger, telling reporters that his caucus would oppose the “potential agreement” because it appeared to include no clear guarantee of increased revenue.

“The president always talked about balance, that there had to be some fairness in this, that this can’t be all cuts. There has to be a balance. There has to be some revenue and cuts. My caucus agrees with that,” Reid said. “I hope that the president sticks with that. I’m confident that he will.”

Democrats for planning to go into the 2012 election campaigning against Rep. Paul Ryan's attempted Medicare cuts. Obama is trying to make cuts into Medicare and Social Security. I can guarantee Republicans will run attack ads against Obama if he succeeds in enacting these cuts. The policy is horrible. Why Obama thinks this is good politics is beyond me.