As most of us thought, Obama is a center, center right president

[eomer]

173. No, I'm discussing working through the well-known steps that are required to enact legislation.

I'm not saying anything different from what I said to start with. I responded to this:

And the GOP, in closing ranks against almost every major initiative Obama has attempted, has taken away most of his opportunities to be truly liberal. The fight to get to 60 votes in the Senate has ensured, over and over, that Obama must aim his legislation at either the most conservative Democrats or the most moderate Republicans. In this, Obama has only been as liberal as Sens. Ben Nelson and Scott Brown have permitted him to be. And that’s not very liberal.

The above claim is not true. On many important issues Obama and Congressional Democrats did not have their hands tied. They had a well-known process that has been used almost every year and for most major legislation over the last several decades. They knew how to use it. They chose not to.

There is no question that they could have permanently raised taxes on the wealthy. If there is anything that is allowed under reconciliation it is changes to the tax code that will reduce the deficit. Yes, they had to go through the proper steps to get this done; they couldn't wait until the last minute because it is a multi-step process. But that is their job and they do know what the steps are. They pretended their hands were tied because they want it both ways: they want to fool us into thinking they are working for us but at the same time want to be able to sell themselves to the 1% by giving them private assurances that it's all just a show.