Ideologue

01/30/10

‘I Am Not an Ideologue,’ Obama Tells GOP

Face to face, Obama urges GOP to work with Dems

By Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press

Baltimore (AP) - In a face-to-face encounter, President Barack Obama chastised Republican lawmakers Friday for opposing him on health care, economic stimulus and other major issues.

Republicans pushed back on taxes and spending, and accused Obama of not taking their ideas seriously.

Obama, attending the House Republicans' retreat in Baltimore, began with conciliatory remarks but soon became more pointed. He said a GOP-driven "politics of no" was blocking action on bills that could help Americans obtain jobs and health care.

In a sometimes-barbed exchange, he said some in the audience have attended ribbon-cutting ceremonies for projects funded by the stimulus package they voted against. Obama also questioned why Republicans have overwhelmingly opposed his tax-cut policies, which he said have benefited 95 percent of American families.

"The notion that this was a radical package is just not true," Obama said. "I am not an ideologue."

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Vocabulary Builder - inline mini-lesson

ideologue

Main Entry: ideo·logue
Variant(s): also idea·logue \ī-dē-o-log, -läg\
Function: noun
Etymology: French idéologue, back-formation from idéologie
Date: 1815

1 : an impractical idealist : theorist
2 : an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology

ideology

Main Entry: ide·ol·o·gy
Variant(s): also ide·al·o·gy \-ä-l-jē, -a-\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural ide·ol·o·gies
Etymology: French idéologie, from idéo- ideo- + -logie -logy
Date: 1813

1 : visionary theorizing
2 a : a systematic body of concepts especially about human life or culture b : a manner or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture c : the integrated assertions, theories and aims that constitute a sociopolitical program

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GOP lawmakers pressed the president to pledge to support a line-item veto for spending bills and across-the-board tax cuts. Obama demurred, saying billionaires don't need new tax cuts.

In his opening remarks, Obama criticized a Washington culture driven by opinion polls and nonstop political campaigns.

"I don't think the American people want us to focus on our job security, they want us to focus on their job security," he said.

The president acknowledged that Republicans have joined Democrats in some efforts, such as sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. But he said he was disappointed and perplexed by virtually unanimous GOP opposition to other programs, such as the $787 billion economic stimulus bill enacted a year ago.

He also noted overwhelming Republican opposition to his proposed overhaul of the nation's health care, which now is in legislative peril. Obama said he would gladly look at better ideas, but he urged Republicans to acknowledge the difficulties that many Americans face in obtaining good health care.

Obama said it makes ideological sense for Democrats and Republicans to work together on some issues such as charging fees to banks that benefited from a federal bailout, temporarily freezing some government spending, keeping jobs from being exported and paying for new government programs when they are created.

Republicans have sharply criticized Obama's approach to most of these issues.

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Perhaps because they have different ideologies.

Or because the president is an idiot.

Sorry, got the wrong graphic on this one.

Patrick Sperry Explains the ideological differences thusly:

Let’s see Mister President. You can’t seem to figure it out, so I will address just a few of the issues that have the people of America not just angry, but thoroughly ticked off at you, and your gang of thugs!

» Health care is for us to decide about not you, or any of your czars!

» Cap and trade is nothing but a money making scheme that will cripple our economy even further.

» Man made climate change is a farce. Call it what it is and get on with business…

» Your closet attempts at gun control will only lead to a full blown revolution. Molan Labe!

» The American people are against illegal immigration as well as any sort of amnesty for those that broke our laws. Figure it out bright boy!

» Taking over private business’s should be done through our quasi free market system, not by politicians.

» We really are in a war on terrorism, and as of late most terrorist’s are muslims. Admit it, and do your job as CIC.

» Americans do not bow to foreign leaders, ever!

» The stealth approach to gun control via the U.N. isn’t so stealthy, read above.

» You hired a pervert to be “safe schools czar?”

» The economy will not be helped by more Keynesian socialism. Stop spending our grandchildren’s heritage.

» Lastly, stop blaming Bush, it’s your agenda now.

No Mister obama, it’s not the Republicans. It is the American People that are against you, your programs, and the thugs that you have working on your team…