Politico reports, on matters related to President Barack Obama’s claimed agenda, from immigration reform to deficit “pay down” to increasing taxes to… that
after months of buildup and a week since his State of the Union address, key aides on the Hill and at the White House acknowledge that even GOP senators who fit Obama’s vision of bipartisanship—Senators Mark Kirk of Illinois, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma—are all waiting to hear anything from the president.
More, Republicans from Speaker of the House John Boehnor (R, OH) to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) and everywhere in between have vociferously decried Obama’s lack of leadership in failing to propose a concrete budget, a firm program of (tax increases and) spending cuts, a specifically laid out plan for avoiding the approaching sequester, a detailed plan for immigration reform (never minding that when he did “leak” a pretty specific immigration plan, Republicans angrily told him to butt out), etc.
What about Republicans’ own leadership? Where’s theirs? Where is the Republican proposal, passed by the House, that provides the next budget—and where is their explanation of already passed budgets in the last two years that addressed taxes and spending? Where is the Republican proposal, already passed by the House, that addresses the pending sequestration? Where is the Republican proposal for immigration reform, already passed by the House—or their tightly reasoned and widely presented argument for why certain aspects of immigration reform needn’t be addressed just yet?
Republican leadership means bellyaching about someone else’s lack of leadership?
What’s up with that?