Obama Avoids Disaster, Not Embarrassment

There is something very Italian about the agreement preventing the U.S. from shutting down: the precariousness of an understanding that removes the nightmare of default but does not resolve the problems. Democrats and Republicans have signed a pact allowing the government to open. This allows President Obama to say that he won; however, it does not evade the embarrassment that the White House and Congress have caused in the last few days.

Why is the agreement not a compromise between the two sides, but just a stopgap that will soon expire instead? Finding a permanent solution would be practical but impossible at the moment; the reason is the sidereal distance between the American ideas the White House represents and those of Republicans, especially the stronger tea party wing.

Agreement in the Senate, under Duress

In essence, Congress decided in relation to time, not content. It was necessary, according to them, and they had to do it, so they did. That’s it. The rest we can leave to Obama’s elation, when he says he has won in the coming hours. Formally, it is like this: The president is surrendering a lot less compared to the purest conservatives. The limitations imposed on the agreement on the health care reform are a trifle, while raising the debt ceiling until Feb. 7 is more than what Republicans were about to accept until yesterday, Oct. 16. The president gloats at the idea that the negotiations on the shutdown have exposed the fracture that exists between establishment Republicans and the tea party. He is probably delighted to have beaten back the ultraconservative resistance in particular, which suffered defeat yesterday, according to many. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., one of the main characters at the moment, has announced that he does not oppose the agreement, even if he does not agree with it.

But can Obama really celebrate beyond today’s victory? No. Many of the criticisms of Republicans and the tea party have not changed, starting with the U.S. public debt, which has risen to crazy levels with this administration. There is a part of the country that does not and will not accept it, even in light of the agreement. It is an enormous problem for a president, whose approval rating is falling to the lowest levels again, especially when it comes to economic policies.

Recently, the president has been more rigid when defending “Obamacare.” The idea behind it is clear: He will not give up the only real reform he has made in the last five years. But can a principle beat the numbers at any cost? In the last few months, newspapers from The Wall Street Journal to The Washington Post have unveiled that the costs at public expense will be much higher than foreseen and that tax rates will inevitably increase in many states. The data only widens the gap between fans and adversaries of the reform and puts the president in a position that divides, rather than unites, the country. When this young senator from Illinois appeared on the political scene, he presented himself as the leader of purple America, a union between the blue Democrats and red Republicans. His presidency has gone the opposite way. He has polarized the discussion; the wave of ultraconservative movements has widened the distance.

America is not going in any direction now. It hesitates. Obama brings home media success and provisional policies but does not open the doors to a new era. This is the general feeling. The negotiations on the shutdown show the defeat of the politics of understanding as art of synthesis, and their conclusion proves this. The compromise exists, but it is formal — a superficial façade. It is a means to an end; that is all. The agreement sets forth the interests of the White House and those of half the Republican Party, which does not want to be labeled as the firebrand, fundamentally considered responsible for an eventual default. What is the uptake? This is postponed until later, to the coming negotiations. Whoever excludes that at the beginning of 2014 there will not be a new shutdown and a repetition of what we have seen in the last few days is very brave and also risks being wrong.