Now that President Barack Obama has shown he does not need to work with Congress to achieve the changes he wants, a liberal organization is calling on Obama to go further.
Monday, the Campaign for America’s Future — a self-described “strategy center for the progressive movement” — co-director Robert Borosage offered up a left-wing wish list of items on which he says Obama should take action with his “pen and his phone.”
“[T]hreats of more obstruction are pretty empty from a Republican leadership that has waged a relentless scorched earth opposition to all things Obama from the start of his administration,” Borosage wrote Monday.
“Instead of suing for peace, the president would be wise to keep on steppin’. President Obama has already shown the way not only on immigration but with the historic agreement on climate with the Chinese (scorned as a “war on coal” by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell) and his firm support for net neutrality,” he continued.
The Campaign for Future co-director’s list of “critical areas where action is long overdue” that Obama should move on unilaterally include: Allowing non-violent felons to vote once they are out of jail, giving federal procurement preferences to business that employ unions, implement a “green jobs” program in coal country, “normalize relations with Cuba,” and arrest a banker to send Wall Street a message.
“These represent only some of the actions the president should take. No doubt, they will elicit more outrage, wringing of hands, waving of fists from the Congress and the wingnuts,” Borosage wrote. “But as the president has already discovered with the China agreement and immigration orders, action frames the debate – and on these and many other issues, the majority of Americans agree with the president – and the base of his voters will be roused by his courage.”