Eight and a half minutes into the final press conference of his first term, President Obama hadn’t talked about anything but reducing budget deficits and the national debt, and increasing the federal borrowing authority. He taunted Republicans—“Turns out, the American people agree with meâ€â€”and recycled campaign rhetoric, invoked troops’ paychecks as potential casualties of default, and looked to define the debt-ceiling boost in the White House’s preferred terms: “It simply allows the country to pay for spending that Congress has already committed to.â€
Only near the end of his opening remarks did Obama turn to the issues that Democrats hope will mark his second term: energy, immigration, and gun control. If Republicans have their way, the pattern will hold and Obama will be deprived of a meaningful second-term legacy on domestic issues beyond a series of economic rescue missions.
Washington needs no reminder of how big-casino fiscal negotiations can crowd out the rest of a policy agenda. If congressional Republicans hold their ground, they could force a series of “mini-cliffsâ€â€”short-term borrowing-authority extensions or continuing budget resolutions that expire every two or three months. The GOP could use budgetary hostage-taking as a reasonable strategic replacement for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s original goal for Obama’s first term: keep him from having a second.
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