Mentor, Ohio (CNN) -- At a Friday morning rally in Hilliard,
Ohio, Democratic former Gov. Ted Strickland exhorted the
audience to vote for President Barack Obama because GOP hopeful
Mitt Romney and vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan have "to
fake compassion."
If you think that sounds unusually cutting, go a few hundred
miles across the country to a Romney rally where Sen. Ron
Johnson, R-Wisconsin, told his home state crowd he wonders of
the president, "How much do you really love the country you are
in charge of?"
These aren't average campaign season contrasts. Coming from
mainstream political leaders, they reflect a bitter mood in the
political class that will make governing hard no matter who wins
on Election Day.
Adding to the level of difficulty, the partisan balance of
Congress is likely to remain essentially the same. Democrats are
poised to retain control of the Senate but with a smaller
margin. Republicans are expected to retain power in the House
also with a narrower majority. Divided control with parties
wielding even less power in each chamber means consensus will be
even more illusory.
If Obama is victorious on Tuesday, he will govern a deeply
divided nation, and he will not have a grace period to heal post-
election wounds. That's because looming deadlines demand that
the president barrel straight into a headlock with Congress over
budget cuts and tax changes shorthanded by Washington as the
"fiscal cliff." That fight has the potential to exacerbate
already raw feelings.
Obama will turn to negotiations over the fiscal cliff quickly
after Tuesday, sources close to the president said.
In the lead-up to the new year, the nation's leaders will face
three events in quick succession. First, the Bush-era tax cuts
will expire on December 31, triggering a return to higher
Clinton-era rates unless new policy is set. Second, $1.2
trillion of painful automatic budget cuts will be triggered ---
the so-called "sequester" -- unless Congress finds an alternate
path to bring that sum into the nation's coffers. Third, the
country will hit a new debt ceiling in mid-spring. These events,
especially the sequester, could have a devastating impact on the
economy, pushing it over the fiscal cliff.
"That's a cliff no one wants to go over," Axelrod said.
Democrats and Republicans largely agree that the cleanest
solution is to effectively address all three crises with a
massive reform effort that would both cut government spending
and bring in more revenue. It would include changes to the
personal tax code, entitlements and debt reduction targets.
But, as usual, the devil's in the details.
Obama administration officials have told CNN the president will
veto any package that extends the Bush-era tax cuts for those
making $250,000 a year or more.
"I've already signed a trillion dollars' worth of spending cuts.
I intend to do more, but if we're serious about the deficit, we
also have to ask the wealthiest Americans to go back to the
rates that they paid when Bill Clinton was in office," the
president has said on the trail as recently as Friday.
In an e-mailed statement Obama campaign policy director James
Kvaal got more specific, explaining that the president wants "a
balanced plan that cuts the deficit by $4 trillion with $2.50
worth of spending cuts for every dollar in revenue and reduces
spending on Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlements."
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term/index.html