Woodward seems to believe that if we had a President more like Bill Clinton, a fiscal deal could have been struck. President Obama is described as distainful of schmoozing with other pols, as mishandling the negotiation process, and as unwilling to move sufficiently toward the political center to get a deal done. One gets the sense that the Democratic President who signed the 1996 welfare reform would have more easily reached a compromise with House Republicans.There are several obvious rebuttals to this idea; my favorite comes to us via the Heritage Foundation. Take it away, Senator:
This story brought to my mind recent research by Baker, Bloom, and Davis, which suggests that policy uncertainty has impeded the economic recovery. If Baker et al. are right that uncertainty depresses the economy, and if Woodward is right that the uncertainty we now face with the upcoming "fiscal cliff" is attributable mostly to the inability of Barack Obama to work with Congress, then the implication is clear: The meagerness of this recovery is not simply a hangover from a financial crisis, but rather a reflection of a fundamental political failure. The price of politics, indeed. [link and emphasis added]
If you didn't immediately recognize him, that was Senator McConnell of Kentucky, the Minority Leader. That these people are continually reelected is testament to the validity of Jay Gould's Law.
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