Did President Obama Want the Debt Negotiations to Fail?

The weeks of squabbling on Capitol Hill have failed to bring about any solution to the short term increase of the debt ceiling to longer term issues of entitlement reform or large spending cuts. In fact, it now appears that the situation may be getting worse.

Instead, President Obama has repeatedly come on television to discuss the debt ceiling debate, while couching himself as between the Congressional Republicans and Democrats. To many observers, this could show aloofness or incompetence-- but perhaps this shows an intentional attempt to allow the two sides to make him look like a 'reasonable center.'

Take, for example, the President's role in the negotiations to raise the debt ceiling. President Obama's negotiations with John Boehner eked out a plan to save $4 trillion over ten years, including about $800 bill taken from increased tax revenues. Both sides had agreed on this plan. The White House even threw in a sop about tax reform:

The White House was agreeable to parts of the deal — notably, the proposal for nearly $800 billion in added tax revenue.

"They were willing to accept our number," the GOP aide said. The group also talked about overhauling the tax code.

"We walked out of the room thinking we were making good progress on the tax reform," the aide said.

Abruptly, and without prior warnings, the White House abrogated the earlier potential solution and instead demanded $400 billion more in tax revenue, shattering the fragile plan:

The White House must have known that to Boehner-- and especially the Tea Party elements in the GOP, this would be not only unsavory, but unacceptable.

So since the President and his advisors made this deliberate decision to push an unpushable envelope, it comes to the question of whether this idea was made to push the increasing meme that the GOP was made up of 'extremists.'

With the bully pulpit, consider the speech the President made on July 25, which some called a desperate attempt to stay relevant but could instead be seen as the 'middle ground' ploy:

Yes, many want government to start living within its means. And many are fed up with a system in which the deck seems stacked against middle-class Americans in favor of the wealthiest few. But do you know what people are fed up with most of all?

They’re fed up with a town where compromise has become a dirty word. They work all day long, many of them scraping by, just to put food on the table. And when these Americans come home at night, bone-tired, and turn on the news, all they see is the same partisan three-ring circus here in Washington. They see leaders who can’t seem to come together and do what it takes to make life just a little bit better for ordinary Americans. They’re offended by that. And they should be.

The American people may have voted for divided government, but they didn’t vote for a dysfunctional government. So I’m asking you all to make your voice heard. If you want a balanced approach to reducing the deficit, let your member of Congress know. If you believe we can solve this problem through compromise, send that message.

Although a lot of the criticism was leveled at Republicans, the idea of blaming Congress in general is a winner, politically. The President has repeatedly attempted to be seen as the 'adult in the room' and instead has grasped defeat from the jaws of victory on the debt deal.

He is attempting to be the only one left standing, because-- let's face it-- he is the President and the office commands respect. And in the case of a default or whatever comes our way Tuesday, he will be in the most televised position to blame everybody but President Barack Obama.


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