Renounced by Democrats for compromising the principles on which he campaigned, President Obama on Tuesday made a direct appeal to Americans he said are being held hostage by partisan politics. “I think it’s tempting not to negotiate with hostage-takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy,” Obama said. “In this case, the hostage was the American people, and I was not willing to see them get harmed.”
The day after he struck a deal with congressional Republicans to extend for two years the Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans in exchange for a 13-month extension of unemployment benefits and other considerations, Obama was by turns defensive and combative.
On Capitol Hill, members of his own party sharply criticized the agreement that extended tax cuts for the wealthy, saying they may not support it.
“Some in my caucus still have concerns about this proposal,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “The concerns are wide-ranging, some dealing with matters other than taxes, frankly.”
From outside of Washington, rank-and-file Democrats jammed White House phone lines complaining about the deal. Some liberal groups said Obama should have held out longer and forced Republicans to buckle.
At a hastily called White House news conference, Obama dismissed his critics, saying he still believed that the tax cuts should not be extended to the richest Americans and noting that polls show that a majority of Americans agree with him.
“The polls are on our side on this,” Obama said. “We weren’t operating from a position of political weakness with respect to public opinion.”
But tax cuts for the wealthy are the “holy grail” for Republicans, he said. They were not going to blink.
“This country was founded on compromise,” Obama said, sounding angry. In a rare personal note, he added, “I couldn’t go through the front door at this country’s founding.”
Joe Tuman, a political scientist at San Francisco State University, said Obama is making a shrewd move — his willingness to cooperate with Republicans will force them to deal with him later or appear obstructionist.
“I know there are liberals and progressives saying he should draw a line and fight, but they are naive,” Tuman said. “In his position, you don’t have the luxury of governing from a fixed ideological position.”
The president said he accepted the deal on tax cuts in order to secure concessions that benefit the middle class, the unemployed and others who are struggling.
He called it “the public option debate all over again,” a reference to the debate over health care reform, when Democrats assailed him for jettisoning a key, populist element of the reforms in order to cut a broader deal and claim a victory.
Cindy Rugeley, a political scientist at Texas Tech University, said Obama is “trying to rebuild his standing with the American people.”
“The turmoil over health care left the impression he was being rolled,” Rugeley said. “Right now, he’s saying he won’t let Americans be ‘collateral damage,’ and that’s a strong message — if people are watching.”
