By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--May 19, 2014
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It is a common election-year posture for lawmakers from the same party as the sitting president, especially one whose popularity has waned, as Mr. Obama's has. But Democrats' recent moves to demonstrate their independence are forcing Mr. Obama to compromise on an agenda already largely opposed by Republicans. And it comes at a point in his presidency when time is running short to accomplish his goals. In the past week, Democrats have diverged from the White House over its insistence that the cost of extending certain tax breaks due to expire should be offset with tax increases and other measures, so as not to add to the deficit. Other Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, expressed opposition to one of Mr. Obama's judicial nominees. Mr. Reid and more than 40 Democratic senators also signed a letter to the administration voicing concern about its preliminary decision to exempt South Korea from a trade-policing mechanism. "This is part of the Catch-22 about second terms: Members want to get re-elected, and the president wants to have his agenda. Those don't always sync," said Chris Kofinis, a Democratic strategist and former chief of staff to Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.).Opposing judicial appointments, many of which no one has ever heard of, seems an especially striking indication that Democrats aren't just diverging from Obama on a few troubling issues. They're actually looking for excuses to pick fights with him, so they can tell voters in their states/districts that they're not Obama toadies. Senator Blah Blah is anticipating the Republican attacks about the "Obama/Blah Blah agenda," so he seeks to blunt it now by taking steps that will allow him to say, "Oh yeah? I opposed his judge pick! Senator Blah Blah is nobody's toady!" But all you need to know is that the Democratic Party is the party of big government, and they all share the goal of expanding government as much as possible so more and more people are dependent on government for some major need in their lives. Regardless of whether this or that legislator sided with Obama on this or that application of the philosophy, they all still share the philosophy. Republicans don't always do a good job of countering this impulse - not by a long shot - but the first step in solving any problem is to remove the people determined not to see it solved. And it's not hard to identify who those people are.
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