President falsely accuses Republican Senators of playing politics to undermine his efforts to rein in spending.
By Matt Dycus
Contributing Editor
February 2, 2010
At a town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire, President Obama today decried the defeat of his proposal to establish a bipartisan commission to oversee the ballooning federal deficit. “The bill failed by seven votes,” he said, squarely placing the blame on the shoulders of seven Republican co-sponsors who he claimed “turned around” and impeded the passage of the bill.
From his prepared statement: "Yet just last week, the Senate blocked a law I supported to create a bi-partisan Fiscal Commission that would come up with a set of recommendations for cutting our deficits in the long term – because solving this difficult challenge is something we can only do together. But this law failed when seven Republicans who had co-sponsored this idea suddenly walked away from their own proposal after I endorsed it. Now, it’s one thing to have an honest difference of opinion on something. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s another to walk away from your responsibilities to confront the challenges facing this country because you think it’s good short-term politics. That’s what we can’t afford.”
The amendment in question – the one that would have created the Commission – was S.AMDT.3299, the so-called Conrad-Gregg bill; it was sponsored by Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) and co-sponsored by Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH). Fourteen more Democrats and seven more Republicans were co-sponsors at the time it went to the floor for a vote on January 26th, 2010. There were seven additional Republican Senators who originally co-sponsored the amendment when it was proposed in early 2009: Robert Bennett (R-UT), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Mike Crapo (R-ID), John Ensign (R-NV), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), James Inhofe (R-OK), and John McCain (R-AZ). At that time, however, the President was against such a Commission, and remained against its creation for another eleven months.
By the time the Amendment finally came to the floor – almost a full year after it was originally proposed – those seven Senators had changed their minds, concerned with the likelihood that the creation of such a Commission would increase taxes during a recession. As the President said in his speech, S.AMDT.3299 ultimately fell seven votes short.
According to the New York Times, Obama was hesitant to endorse the Amendment because of Nancy Pelosi’s opposition to the Fiscal Commission. Sen. Gregg was quoted as saying that Obama was “a little late to the party” due to widespread opposition to tax increases. Per the Times, the President was resigned to the fact that he would have to sign an executive order to ram his idea through. However, it certainly wasn’t “sudden,” as the President suggested, and occurred well before his endorsement of the Amendment – contrary to Obama’s claim that Republicans walked away only after he threw his support behind it. By the time the President finally endorsed the Amendment – just one week ago – defeat of the bill was already widely predicted. Not only did Obama lie about the timeline in attacking seven Republicans in his Nashua speech, but he also failed to place any blame whatsoever on the 20 Democrats that voted against the Amendment.
As an alternative to raising taxes during a recession, Sen. Brownback offered up his own amendment, S.AMDT.3309, co-sponsored by Crapo, Ensign, and Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), David Vitter (R-LA), John Barrasso (R-WY), and Mike Johanns (R-NE). Brownback’s amendment would have created a Commission on Congressional Budgetary Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies, which would work to reduce the federal budget deficit while eliminating the possibility of tax hikes. This amendment went to the floor on January 28th, 2010, but failed by nine votes, with 45 Democrats voting against it.
Ultimately, Obama’s eleventh-hour endorsement of the Conrad-Gregg Amendment fell flat – as did his endorsements in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia, and Copenhagen (twice) – because of ineffective leadership. His uncanny ability to twist facts and distort timelines is becoming legendary; his inability to harness the filibuster-proof Senate majority that he once held is mind-boggling. It is no wonder that the President lashed out at Republicans: he was shifting blame to draw attention away from his own failures.