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Opinion: Debt talks: Is progress possible if we focus on the battle of ideologies?

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The real ideologue in Washington is President Obama, not Republicans, Op-Ed columnist Jonah Goldberg writes Tuesday. The never-ending debt-ceiling debate is just a preview of Obama’s reelection campaign: He ‘is the pragmatic voice of reason holding the ideologues at bay.’ But that claim is just not true, Goldberg argues.

Republicans are criticized because they won’t consider tax hikes, but Obama hasn’t put everything on the table either. He won’t discuss ‘Obamacare,’ which is widely unpopular among voters, Goldberg says. He also cites an interview during the primary debates in which Obama said he would raise the capital gains tax, even if cutting it would result in more revenue, in order to be fair.

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Consider the frustration of the supposedly ideologically locked-in GOP Congress. In 2008, the national debt was 40% of GDP. Now it’s more than 60%, and it is projected to reach 75% next year, all thanks to a sour economy the GOP feels Obama made worse with incontinent spending.

Republicans won a historic election last November campaigning against the spending, borrowing, tax hikes and Obamacare. Yet Obama’s position is that the Republicans are deranged dogmatists because they don’t want to raise taxes or borrow more money to pay for spending they opposed. And Obama is flexible because he refuses to revisit a program that has never been popular.

Want to see those battling ideologies in action? Here’s what readers are saying on our discussion board.*

Obama hates millionaires

Everything Obama (and any Leftist) does is ideological. Joe the Plumber is a perfect example. Despite knowing as fact that decreasing taxes will increase revenue - which only happens when a population is being taxed too much - he chooses to increase taxes anyway. Because for him it’s not about the proper functioning of government, or even about math or economics... its about using the sledgehammer of government to pound America into a flatter, ‘fairer’ version of itself.

George Bush cut taxes and stimulated the economy to get us out of the Clinton recession. (And didn’t whine once about what he ‘inherited’) Bush created more millionaires, who then paid more taxes. Obama hates millionaires so much, he will purposefully destroy an economy and everyone else’s lives just to get ‘even’ with them. Stunningly, obtusely, dangerously, ideological.

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--truthfl

When debt is out of control, increase taxes

The reason Obama sounds like he is positioning himself as a pragmatist is because he is acting like one. Republicans want cuts -- immense cuts never attempted before -- and if they don’t get those cuts they will deprive the U.S. Treasury of funds needed to pay the nation’s bills and obligations (obligations that Republicans themselves approved). This will raise interest rates and depress the U.S. and world economy.

Democrats -- and most economists -- feel the debt problem cannot be solved by cuts alone. Tax revenues are needed. Congress figured this out in the 1990’s.

When a company is running in the red because of costs outside its control, it has no choice but to raise its prices. The cost of providing government services -- SS, Medicare, Medicaid, Defense -- has risen, so it makes sense that the price charged to taxpayers has to rise, too.

That Obama, the Democrats, the Fed, and most economists think this makes sense does not make them ideological. It is not Obama’s ‘idee fixe’.

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The Health Care Act is non-negotiable because it is the only thing out there with a chance of bending the health care cost curve. The CBO says it will actually reduce the deficit.

The President is arguing passionately for a centrist, common-sense approach. Republicans have rejected his proposals and are ready to sink the world economy to make their point.

--Mark H. Moulton

We don’t see Obama signing pledges, do we?

What a silly piece. Does the President bow and scrape to the like of Grover Norquist, swear unswerving allegiance to rigid dogma like ‘No new taxes under any conditions,’ or mouth words like ‘Not raising the debt-ceiling is no big deal’ like so many Republican House members have? I’d suggest Goldberg whip out a dictionary and look up ‘ideologue.’ He obviously doesn’t know the meaning of the word. As I wrote before, what a silly piece.

--ROSJAN

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Obama isn’t nonpartisan; we’ll get tax hikes in 2013

Rosjan, we all know where Goldberg is on the ideological scale. He is a conservative and writes as such. The point is that Obama pretends to be non partisan and non ideological, the ‘adult in the room’ Really, that is just hilarious. Jonah is basically right - tax hikes in 2013. Spending cuts? See when those happen. And Mr. Non Ideological will not consider any cuts to his Obamacare program that isn’t popular, nor ‘high speed rail’ or ‘green jobs’. Mr Non Ideological thinks that’s essential spending. roll eyes!

--jmpickett

The real job creators are small businesses

The Republicans keep calling ‘the rich’ the ‘Job creators’, but I think most people realize that the real job creators are the owners of small businesses. Those people, for the most part, are not any kind of rich.

But, if what another poster here states is true, if Obama really IS the adult in the room, that doesn’t say a whole lot for the sandbox wrangling of our congressional representation. The daily purity of ideology tests are tiresome.

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--prillyam

The question is, can we make any progress if these two opposing sides don’t refrain from locking horns?

*Spelling errors in the above comments were corrected.

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--Samantha Schaefer

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