No Excuses For Rahm or Harry
Jan 31, 2010 11-Dimensional Chess, Harry Reid, Obama vs The Media, President Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, health care reform, public option
Everyone hates Rahm Emanuel. Even Bob Cesca’s calling for Rahm’s head over supposed “mixed messaging” on health care. Perhaps Emanuel was inartful, but I think he might have been thinking of “the pivot” when he spoke. Which brings me to Paul Volcker’s long op-ed in the New York Times today, which has been Huffington Post’s lead story since noon Saturday. That’s the full force of Teh Librul Media Machine™, folks, and I don’t think it’s accidental.
Writing with the tacit approval of the president, Volcker writes that reform must end the days of “too big to fail:”
To meet the possibility that failure of such institutions may nonetheless threaten the system, the reform proposals of the Obama administration and other governments point to the need for a new “resolution authority.” Specifically, the appropriately designated agency should be authorized to intervene in the event that a systemically critical capital market institution is on the brink of failure. The agency would assume control for the sole purpose of arranging an orderly liquidation or merger. Limited funds would be made available to maintain continuity of operations while preparing for the demise of the organization.
To help facilitate that process, the concept of a “living will” has been set forth by a number of governments. Stockholders and management would not be protected. Creditors would be at risk, and would suffer to the extent that the ultimate liquidation value of the firm would fall short of its debts.
To put it simply, in no sense would these capital market institutions be deemed “too big to fail.” What they would be free to do is to innovate, to trade, to speculate, to manage private pools of capital — and as ordinary businesses in a capitalist economy, to fail. (Emphasis mine)
Thus Volcker repeats Obama’s three consistent talking points about financial industry reform. As in his SOTU speech, Obama is deliberately raising the subject of Wall Street to grab the political center — and pull the populism rug out from under the tea party movement at exactly the right time. He read the post-Brown polls as a mandate for change, and what’s more he needs a convenient distraction from health care reform.
One of the best-known tricks in show business is to get the audience favorite off center stage for a while; the triumphant return in Act V is a staple of storytelling. There’s some staging at work here: just as Obama moved Geithner and Summers to the background and brought Volcker to his side the day after Massachusetts, financial reform is taking the spotlight.
There may also be some filtration going on; Emanuel said Thursday:
“The good news is, nobody is saying ‘Drop it.’ Everybody is saying, ‘Take the time to figure out how to get this done,’’’ Mr. Emanuel said Thursday in an interview about how the president intends to pursue his legislative agenda this year. “Not doing it is not part of this conversation.’’ (Emphasis mine)
Then the next day, this ran in the Times:
With Mr. Obama’s health care overhaul stalled on Capitol Hill, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said in an interview that Democrats would try to act first on job creation, reducing the deficit and imposing tighter regulation on banks before returning to the health measure, the president’s top priority from last year.
But just look at the second ‘graff after that one:
One day after the president upbraided Congress in his State of the Union address for excessive partisanship, Senate Republicans voted en masse against a plan to require that new spending not add to the deficit (it passed anyway as all 60 members of the Democratic caucus hung together). (Emphasis mine)
Deficit reduction? Check. Also, after “the pivot” and the SOTU, there’s new bank tax on deck and a set of new jobs proposals that can be passed quickly. We’re not talking about The Finance Reform Bill or The Stimulus Part II here, which is what Ezra Klein said that set everyone off about Emanuel’s interview with the Times.
Meanwhile, the process of passing a public option through reconciliation — the one measure that would guarantee House Democrats pass the Senate bill as-is, finishing the 11-Dimensional Chess victory called “health care reform” — begins, and calls increase. Which brings me to Harry Reid, who — for all his spinelessness — has a secret: there are 50 votes for a public option today.
Constitutionally, that’s all you need. Realistically, it’s important to get as many as you can on board, and it takes time to arrange for reconciliation. Reid won’t rush the process, and more importantly he shouldn’t. In the meantime, a few easy victories can fill the stage while health care reform, which isn’t even the number one issue among voters, gets a costume-change in the wings.
I’m not making excuses, but then again I don’t think any are needed. The liberalatti have once again confused “win” with “victory.” Reid is no LBJ, but you begin reform with the Senate Majority Leader you have, etc.
