Ever since the Republican Party regained control of the House of Representatives, President Obama has moved to the center on several key political issues.
There was his compromise on upper-class tax cuts, and his controversial Wall Street Journal op-ed, in which he stated that he supported deregulation in many important areas.
At the time that the op-ed was written, The Spectrum published an editorial in support of the move. We believed that the best way for Obama to get things done was to reach out the Republicans and attempt to compromise as much as possible.
A recent proposal by the House Republicans, however, makes it appear that the right may be attempting to take advantage of Obama's attempts at bipartisanship.
The proposed legislation features a ban on EPA regulations of greenhouse gases, and would eliminate a threshold that declares that they are a danger to the public health and welfare.
The Spectrum is strongly opposed to this legislation. If it were to pass, companies would be allowed to pollute much more than they already do, and the effects on the environment could be devastating.
The GOP is attempting to push this as a pro-business bill, but we find it difficult to view it as anything other than anti-environment.
What really sticks out to us, however, is why this bill is being proposed. We believe it is a direct result of Obama's Wall Street Journal piece. His stance against regulations emboldened the GOP, and now Republicans are taking advantage of it with legislation that would do much more harm than good.
While The Spectrum supported Obama's decision to write the op-ed, and we believe bipartisanship is necessary, we also believe that Obama cannot be too soft when taking on the GOP.
Throughout the first half of his term, Obama had a difficult time getting legislation passed, due to the GOP's filibustering of just about every relevant bill that was proposed.
Now, with Republicans running the House, he may have a bigger issue: Republicans controlling the tone of legislation and attempting to pass bills with a far-right agenda.
Obama needs to make it clear that even though he wants bipartisanship and compromise, he's still the president, and his party still controls the Senate and can flex its own legislative muscles.
If Obama doesn't take a stand against dangerous legislation like this, the next two years won't go any better for him than the first two did.
