Today's Wall Street Journal:
President Barack Obama on Monday plans to nominate Princeton University's Alan Krueger to be chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, a White House official said.
If confirmed by the Senate...
And you can end the story right there, because Senate Republicans will simply block the nomination as part of whatever hostage scenario they are planning next. In fact, the RNC is already on the attack:
Within minutes of the announcement, Republican National Committee Research Director Joe Pounder flagged 2009 remarks by Krueger during his tenure as an assistant secretary at the Treasury Department in which he touted the benefits of a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions.
“New WH Chief economist: ‘The proposed cap-and-trade program holds the promise of creating new industries and jobs,’ ” Pounder said on Twitter Monday.
Pounder’s comments shed light on Republicans’ plans to undercut Krueger’s nomination.
So six months from now when Kreuger still isn't confirmed and primary season starts up, you'll know why. The Republicans assure government remains broken in the middle of a massive economic downturn and blame Obama for it, and it works perfectly. It will keep on working because if the Democrats complain, Republicans can simply say "The American people aren't interested in blame, they're interested in results" and they'd be right.
And there's basically nothing President Obama can do that doesn't play right into GOP hands. If somebody can suggest something, that would be great. Pour political capital into this fight and the Republicans will say "Boy if only you spent that much efforts on job creation!" Do nothing and the GOP wins by default. The political reality is to hope that the GOP ignores this and moves on, but that's already a problem.
But there is something we as voters can do: just keep in mind that it's Republicans who have broken the system and vote accordingly.
