Obama reste en état de marche, mais à quel prix…

Obama reste en état de marche, mais à quel prix…

Le gouvernement à Washington continue à fonctionner, in extremis…Pour commenter l’accord de dernière minute de Barack Obama avec le Speaker républicain de la Chambre des Représentants, John Boehner, nous avons choisi Michael Tomasky, que nous avions déjà choisi le 7 avril 2011, pour présenter la crise.

Dans un très court billet, ce 9 avril 2011, dans le Guardian, Tomasky présente, avec une réelle et profonde amertume, l’accord qui est en fait une victoire républicaine presque complète. Partisan fidèle et constant de son président préféré, Tomasky se demande jusqu’où Obama cédera aux républicains pour éviter les affrontements, et jusqu’à quand il conservera encore le soutien des libéraux US. Les républicains, eux, se préparent déjà à la prochaine épreuve de force où ils feront à nouveau céder Obama.

« So we have a deal and a government… […]

» But the $38 billion cut is the largest single-year cut in the history of the country, according to the president, who taped a three-minute video statement shortly after 11 pm Friday night, when the deal was announced by Speaker John Boehner… […]

» I understand what Obama is doing when he talks, as he does in the video, about the government needing to live within its means… […]

» But but but: to hear Obama kinda-sorta boasting about overseeing a domestic spending cut on a scale that even Ronald Reagan never managed leaves one wondering where and over what he might someday draw a line in the sand.

»Last December, he signed George W. Bush's tax cuts. Then he introduced his own budget, which include a five-year pay freeze for federal employees and cut funding for a couple of subsidy programs for poor and elderly people. Finally, during this whole process, he never once that I can remember made a forceful public statement singling out a GOP cut as severe or unwise, never defended family planning initiatives, never pointed to one thing and said, this I will not brook.

»Yes, I understand, liberals are outnumbered. I'm more understanding of that than most liberals I know, believe me. And Republicans have power now, and they're extreme, and this is the way it's going to be for a little while at least. But any skillful politician can find ways to communicate to the middle and his base simultaneously. He just has to want to.»

dedefensa.org