"Obama is helping the GOP by rolling over on unemployment benefits..."

The terrible politics of deficit reduction

Obama is helping the GOP by rolling over on unemployment benefits and talking tough about spending

By Joan Walsh

Chris Matthews threw me a curveball on "Hardball" today, asking whether I thought it was possible President Obama is tackling big issues because he's made peace with the possibility he'll be a one-term president, and isn't playing politics for the sake of reelection.

I wasn't sure where to begin with that, it seemed not true on so many levels. I believe Obama is fully focused on reelection -- and I think that's fine. I concede he's tackling a lot of big issues, but that's his job; he inherited two wars and a busted economy, he didn't have the option to play small ball. I appreciate that he chose to tackle healthcare reform, apparently over the objections of Rahm Emanuel and his political team, according to Jonathan Alter's "The Promise." (I can't help wondering, though, if Emanuel and David Axelrod wanted that story out there exactly because they're his political team. See what a different kind of pol he is! He doesn't think about politics!)

But I do begrudge one thing the administration is doing with reelection in mind: playing along with the deficit hawks who insist the government can't afford any more spending to shore up the economy. It's outrageous that a Democratic Congress can't pass an extension of unemployment benefits. It's offensive. Obama hasn't fought nearly hard enough for it, and he and his political team actively fight against it whenever they give any credence, even lip service, to the conservative notion that reducing the deficit should come before any more spending on fixing the economy. That's going to turn out to be both bad policy and bad politics, and I'm hoping Obama rethinks this whole issue, and soon.

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On both policy and politics, the administration's unwillingness to commit to a full court press to revive the economy -- extending unemployment benefits both to keep people alive and to inject more money into the parched consumer economy, increasing aid to states and cities so they can avoid laying off cops, firefighters and teachers, maybe even a second stimulus and a public works jobs program -- is a huge disappointment, hurting the unemployed and the overall economy, as well as Democrats. I'm not sure it's possible to be both craven and politically stupid at the same time, but the Obama White House may yet show us how.

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