The pressure on Obama to embrace steep budget cuts has brought out rivalries among Democratic interest groups as advocates beseech the White House not to decimate their priorities.
The battle has played out most dramatically between those who advocate for programs to aid the poor and those who think Obama’s best political strategy is to present himself as a champion for the middle class.
Seniors say they're concerned about the effect the lingering debt ceiling battle will have on their government benefits and investments. (July 27)
President Obama told Americans the nation faced a 'deep economic crisis' if Democrats and Republicans could not reach a deal on spending, urging both sides to compromise. (July 25)
Running in the red
Some advocates for the poor expressed disappointment this week when the president, in a prime-time address to the nation on Monday, repeatedly spoke out for working-class Americans but did not mention poverty programs such as Medicaid, food stamps and aid for women with infants.
Political strategists are advising the White House to frame the debate in terms that will appeal to independent swing voters, who are considered crucial for Obama’s reelection effort next year in battleground states such as Ohio, Virginia, Florida and Colorado. A strategy memo published this month by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, for example, recommends focusing on how GOP-backed cuts would threaten services to seniors, Medicare and food-safety inspections.
But just as important to Obama’s reelection bid is building enthusiasm among liberals — particularly among Hispanics and African Americans, groups that are struggling economically more than whites and stand to be directly affected by reductions to low-income programs.
Those groups have been Obama’s most loyal backers. And high enthusiasm among minorities in key states, particularly in the Hispanic-heavy West, is a central piece of the president’s reelection strategy. But new Washington Post-ABC News polling suggests that budget talks and the economy may be straining that relationship — and shows why White House officials feel the need to step up the outreach.
Although Obama’s overall approval rating among blacks remains high, 57 percent of African Americans surveyed in the poll said Obama is too willing to compromise with Republicans in budget talks. Combined data from recent Post-ABC polls put Obama’s overall approval rating among Hispanics in the low 50s, about 20 points lower than it was two years ago.
On Wednesday, some black and Hispanic lawmakers indicated that their frustration with Obama goes beyond the debt talks to their belief that he has not done more to stem poverty and unemployment in their communities.
“We’ve got to march on him,” said Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.). “We’ve had it. We want him to come out on our side and advocate.”
Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said the White House and top Democrats often act as though “poor people don’t have the political power in this nation to shift the discussion and that we must appeal to independents.”
Consternation gripped many liberals last week, when it appeared Obama was nearing a “grand bargain” with Boehner that would have slashed trillions in spending. The speaker walked out on the deal, but several liberal advocates typically aligned with the White House said in interviews that they had planned to fight the proposal had Boehner not abandoned it.
Earlier this month, amid concerns that the president was not sufficiently shielding health-care programs for the poor, about a dozen advocates appealed in a 90-minute meeting to White House senior advisers to make Medicaid a higher priority. Part of the pitch: that voters see value in helping seniors and disabled children.
Staff writer David Nakamura and polling director Jon Cohen contributed to this report.
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