NEW YORK - Regrouping with Democrats after this month’s fiscal fight, President Barack Obama on Friday cast the spending-and-debt standoff with Republicans in Congress as “a symptom of a larger challenge” but one offering Democrats the chance to show voters the virtues of their vision for government ahead of the 2014 midterm elections.
After putting politics on hold as a showdown with Congress forced the government to shut down, Obama launched a six-week burst of fundraising for Democrats with a pair of top-dollar events in New York.
He told donors that the impasse, at its core, was “a symptom of a larger challenge,” exposing how American politics, with its intense focus on ideology, have become detached from the problems ordinary Americans face.
“The shutdown was about more than just health care,” Obama told about 60 donors at a fundraiser for House Democrats. “It was about a contrast of visions, about what our obligations are to each other as fellow citizens.”
“And we’ve got the better side of that argument,” Obama added.
Reflecting on the 16-day shutdown a week after it ended, Obama offered the first glimpse at how he and Democrats will seek to frame the crisis in the minds of donors and voters ahead of next year’s elections.
He portrayed the crisis as an opportunity for Democrats to unite behind a vision of broad-based prosperity, where the government has a hand in giving people the tools to succeed.
“We believe that government has a role to play,” Obama said.
Democrats emerged strengthened politically from the crisis, in which Republicans refused for weeks to fund the government unless Obama agreed to debilitating changes to his health-care law. Polls show more Americans blamed Republicans than Democrats for the dysfunction.
But how effectively Democrats can turn that leverage into gains in an election more than a year out remains an open question.
“The stakes are high,” Obama said. “The one thing I’m absolutely confident about is that if we work hard, that wecan make a case to the American people and we can win it.”
Although Democrats remained united during the crisis, Obama acknowledged that members of his party hold a range of views on key issues heading into 2014. But he said they agree on their vision of the U.S. as a place where opportunity and prosperity are broad-based and available to all.
Ahead of the fundraisers, Obama made a surprise stop at a Brooklyn eatery with Bill de Blasio, the Democratic candidate he has endorsed for New York’s coming mayoral election.
Obama also toured a Brooklyn high school to showcase a rare program that allows students to finish high school with an associate’s degree in computers or engineering. A school gymnasium as his backdrop, Obama framed the budget talks set to resume next week by urging Congress to put more money into education and other programs he said lead to growth.
“Don’t tell me we can afford to shut down the government, which costs our economy billions of dollars, but we can’t afford to invest in our education systems,” Obama said.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 10/26/2013