Point Of Order, Mr. President

Obama laid into Republican critics last night at a meeting of House Democrats in Virginia.

President Obama veered away from his repeated calls for bipartisanship on Thursday night, laying into Republican opponents of his massive stimulus package before a wildly enthusiastic audience of House Democrats.

“This package is not going to be absolutely perfect,” the president told more than 200 House members gathered here for their annual policy conference. “You can nit it. You can pick. That’s the game we play here. But we can’t afford to play that game now,” he said to loud cheers.

Coming into the first day of the three-day policy conference, some House members fretted that Obama and Democratic congressional leaders weren’t doing enough to combat Republicans who claim the $819 billion package (HR 1) passed by the House two weeks ago contains too much wasteful federal spending and not enough in job-stimulating tax cuts.

Laying into the critics, Obama said, “They say this isn’t a stimulus bill. It’s a spending bill. Well, that’s the whole point.” He rarely used the word “Republican.”

Now. The good news is, Obama's going on the offensive. Even The Kroog sees this is a good idea.

It’s time for Mr. Obama to go on the offensive. Above all, he must not shy away from pointing out that those who stand in the way of his plan, in the name of a discredited economic philosophy, are putting the nation’s future at risk. The American economy is on the edge of catastrophe, and much of the Republican Party is trying to push it over that edge.

But as The Kroog points out, it's that last part of the President's statement I have a problem with. This isn't s spending bill, Mr. President. it's a "save the f'cking economy from the Second Great Depression" bill, sir.

You might want to keep that in mind. Redefine the argument away from spending vs tax cuts altogether. Use those January job numbers and hammer it into both sides that the goal of this bill is, quite frankly, to keep us ending up from a much worse situation.

In other words, in that Monday press conference, level with the American people. If we're still fighting over spending vs. tax cuts, we're losing sight of the fact the GOP is trying to wreck the fracking economy over political power games.

Call them out on it. Daily.