Doyle McManus: It's not 1994 again
[Doyle McManus is Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times.]
It's common these days — and, to some Democrats, comforting — to summon hazy memories of 1994, when, as happened again on Tuesday, their party lost the House of Representatives to the Republicans. That wasn't so bad, was it? After all, it led to a period of productive bipartisan deal-making — and then, two years later, Bill Clinton won reelection by a comfortable margin.
But that is a prettied-up version of history. Before President Clinton and then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich were able to compromise on taxes, spending cuts and welfare reform, they collided spectacularly — in a bitter budget confrontation that led to two federal government shutdowns in 1995. Just as Gingrich and his Republicans had to test the limits of their newly won power, so too will the new majority of Speaker-to-be John A. Boehner look for at least one tough confrontation with Obama, both to test the president's resilience and to keep promises to their "tea party" constituents. One almost certain clash: a vote to repeal Obama's healthcare law, even though Obama is virtually certain to veto it.
And Obama's challenge over the next two years looks more difficult than Clinton's, in several ways...
Read entire article at LA Times
It's common these days — and, to some Democrats, comforting — to summon hazy memories of 1994, when, as happened again on Tuesday, their party lost the House of Representatives to the Republicans. That wasn't so bad, was it? After all, it led to a period of productive bipartisan deal-making — and then, two years later, Bill Clinton won reelection by a comfortable margin.
But that is a prettied-up version of history. Before President Clinton and then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich were able to compromise on taxes, spending cuts and welfare reform, they collided spectacularly — in a bitter budget confrontation that led to two federal government shutdowns in 1995. Just as Gingrich and his Republicans had to test the limits of their newly won power, so too will the new majority of Speaker-to-be John A. Boehner look for at least one tough confrontation with Obama, both to test the president's resilience and to keep promises to their "tea party" constituents. One almost certain clash: a vote to repeal Obama's healthcare law, even though Obama is virtually certain to veto it.
And Obama's challenge over the next two years looks more difficult than Clinton's, in several ways...