Obama to House Dems: I "have your back"
CAMBRIDGE, Md. -- President Obama rallied House Democrats today telling them "I believe in you guys. You guys have had my back at some very tough times. I'm going to have your back as well and together we're going to move this country forward."
The relationship between Mr. Obama and some House Democrats was strained for parts of last year as left-leaning Democrats urged the president to do more to help the poor and needy and some saw time the president spent negotiating with Republicans over deficit reduction and spending priorities as a waste of time.
Mr. Obama, who spoke to Democrats for just over 20 minutes, said that Democrats should be ready to work with Republicans on making the tax code more fair for the middle class, investing in clean domestic energy and on education and job training programs.
The president said, however, that working with Republicans would only be effective if the GOP puts politics aside for a "nanosecond."
"Where they obstruct, where they're unwilling to act, or they're more interested in party than they are in country, more interested in the next election than the next generation, then we've got to call them out on it," Mr. Obama said to applause.
House Speaker John Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel said in an emailed statement that "We're more than willing to work with the president and find common ground, for example on the ideas the president's own jobs council recommended, but the White House has already said it's done governing. Clearly, it is time for the president to reconsider his decision to put campaigning before working together to help the American people."
Democrats also heard earlier this morning from a raspy-voiced Vice President Joe Biden who predicted that 2012 would be a good year for Democrats who need to pick up at least 25 seats to win back the House.
"I really do think we're going to win back the House," Biden said after also predicting that he and the president would celebrate a second inauguration next January.
Mr. Obama and Biden spoke to members at their annual retreat, held this year at the Hyatt Regency on the Chesapeake Bay in Cambridge, Maryland. The excursion included three days of panel discussions on "Jobs and American Priorities," smaller discussions on "Advancing Women's Issues in 2012 and "Our Commitment to Protect Seniors" and a party last night where members danced to live music performed by soul singer Terisa Griffin.
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., told reporters yesterday that "this is the first time I've seen Democrats this united."
"We're united around one thing, and that's making sure that we continue to fight for jobs and to turn the economy around for the middle class and those striving to achieve the middle class," she said.
Democrats jumped on the president's State of the Union call for fairness, which he reiterated today.
"We've got more than a trillion dollars worth of tax breaks that were supposed to be temporary for the top 2 percent slated to continue," Mr. Obama said. "We've got a tax code full of loopholes for folks who don't need them and weren't even asking for them. We've got to ask ourselves, what's more important to us, is it more important for me to get a tax break or is it more important for that senior to know that they've got Medicare and Social Security that's safe?"
"We embrace reigniting the American dream" said Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who chairs the House Progressive Caucus. "The American dream works for people who are middle class, working class and even America's poor who believe that in a country, the richest country in the history of the world, that there ought to be a ladder up for everybody."
House Democrats were relentlessly on message over the past three days, saying that Democrats are the party looking out for the middle class while Republicans want to end Medicare as Americans know it, and that Democrats want to protect tax cuts that benefit the middle class while Republicans are shielding tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. They also made the case that the economy is actually starting to turn around and that the president and Democrats should get credit for that.
"In the last 22 months we've done pretty good... 3.2 million jobs have been created," said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas. "If you compare that to December of 2008 before President Obama took office we were losing 750 thousand jobs a month. So there is a big difference."
However, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said that Democrats won't be completely in step with the president on every message -- especially on entitlements like Medicare, which Mr. Obama has said he is open to changing to reign in long-term costs.
"That really isn't going to be the position that those of us in the House take," Schakowsky said.
House Republicans held a similar retreat last week in Baltimore, Maryland, where members said they were unified in opposition to Mr. Obama's policies and that they would offer voters a clear choice in November in terms of what it takes to spur job creation.
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The unity in both parties will be tested over the next few weeks as the two sides will have to make some concessions to extend the payroll tax and unemployment insurance, and prevent a cut in physician's Medicare reimbursement rates through the end of the year -- and find a way to cover the cost. The current two month extension expires on February 29th.