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By
Dick Morris & Eileen McGann |
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November 4, 2010 |
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Now that President Obama has experienced
the same baptism of fire as President Bill Clinton did in the 1994
midterm elections, the obvious question is: Will he move to the center
in a bid to save his presidency and win re-election? |
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The move worked well for Clinton: He
sought to combine the best aspects of each party's program in a third
approach that became known as triangulation. |
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But Obama won't follow suit because he
can't, even if he wants to. Today's issues are different from those that
separated the parties in 1994 and don't lend themselves to common
ground. |
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Obama's programs have been so
far-reaching and fundamental that any compromise would leave the nation
far to the left of where it's always been and wants to be. When he took
office, government (federal, state and local combined) controlled 35
percent of the US economy -- 15th among the two-dozen advanced
countries. Now, it controls 44.7 percent, ranking us 7th, ahead of
Germany and Britain. So where's the compromise -- leave government in
control of, say, 40 percent? |
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Add the overriding need for sharp deficit
reduction, to bring down the debt before it strangles our economy. |
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Republicans are pushing to begin this by
rolling back spending to pre-Obama levels. The alternative would be to
raise taxes to pay the bills run up by the Democratic Congress that the
voters just repudiated. Yet even partly covering that tab would lock in
a government that big -- hoarding capital, pouncing on all available
credit and taking away such a major portion of national income -- would
be anathema to our free-enterprise system. |
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Yet a zero tax-hike policy will require
budget cuts that Obama and the left will find unacceptable. |
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Even with some tax hikes, the slashes in
social spending needed to start reducing the debt will also preclude a
search for middle ground. |
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What triangulation is possible on health
care? The fundamental building block of Obama's program is the
individual mandate to buy insurance. Absent that, all that's left is a
consumer-protection bill that limits insurance-company practices. Yet
the mandate can't be scaled back but still preserved: It's either in
place or it isn't. There's no middle ground. |
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On "cap and trade," the other major
pillar of Obama's secular temple, either we tax carbon, or we don't. The
left will deride any program without coercion or tax increases (even
though the evidence suggests that voluntary measures are bringing down
our carbon emissions nicely). Again, faced with a choice between a tax
and no tax, there's no middle ground. |
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We can easily see how far Obama has moved
off the center of gravity of the American people by measuring his losses
in the House. If Republicans stick to their principles and pass their
programs in the House, they'll set forth an agenda that the nation can
follow. If they compromise to suit Obama's big-government objectives,
they'll muddy the waters, antagonize their energetic base and provide no
clear alternative to his socialism.
It's time for bold, clear contrasts. It's
not 1994. |