After writing a column titled “Let Us Be Clear: Obama Deserves Chief Responsibility for Gov’t Shutdown,” Nick Gillespie of Reason magazine responded this week to left-of-center criticism of his arguments.
My column made what I think is a fairly obvious point (spoiler alert: I gave it away in the headline). It’s the same basic point that Gov. Chris Christie makes. … [T]he failure to pass a budget ultimately redounds to Obama’s lack of leadership. Here’s part of what Christie said:
My approach would be, as the executive, is to call in the leaders of the Congress, the legislature, whatever you’re dealing with and say to them, we are not leaving this room unless we fix this problem because I’m the boss, I’m in charge. When you’re the executive, if you’re waiting for leadership from the legislative branch of government whether you are the Governor or whether you are the President, or whether you’re a mayor, you are going to be waiting forever.
The only reason the government is shut down is because there is no budget, or a continuing resolution, or a spending plan, or set of appropriations bills, or whatever you want to call it. A stronger leader and a more effective politician than Obama would have made sure that we never got to the moment we’re in. Especially at the exact moment when his big health-care reform bit was about to start enrolling people. I suggested that Obama would have done better by “kick[ing] the asses of sorry little functionaries like John Boehner and Harry Reid to pass budgets on a regular basis.” …
… For the sake of argument, let us assume that it is true that Republicans were just waiting for the moment when Democrats in the Senate finally got around to passing a budget after years of screwing off and giving interviews about fake forthcoming budget documents. It isn’t true – though as I noted in my column, the GOP is not blameless in plugging up things – but even if it were, it really doesn’t matter to the argument I was making.
Of course the Republicans are trying to bust Obama’s – and the Democrats’ – balls. Politics ain’t beanbag and all that. So what? Obama could have and should have jawboned all involved to work something out. That wouldn’t have necessarily meant going Al Capone on anyone. He might have had to “offer” up something (horrors!) in exchange for cooperation. He might have pulled back on taxes or spending or the Keystone XL pipeline. He might have gone directly to the American people and gotten us to squeeze recalcitrant Republicans with our anger or sour tweets, or he might have peeled off some Republican squishes and flipped the four Democrats who voted against the Senate plan. There must have been something he could have done – we’re talking about Barack Obama, after all, Lord of the Beer Summit, after all, and not just some mere mortal!
