Elites Score Big in Lame Duck Congress

This lame duck session, Congress and the President adopted a legislative package tailor-made to earn the approval of elites from both parties.

In the lame duck session, Congress kept the Bush tax cuts for the upper brackets, passed START, repealed DADT and scotched the DREAM Act. Congress also passed a continuing resolution that sets the stage for one heck of a budget brawl in 2011.

One way to look at all this is to say that Congress and the president are responding to the election and are finally governing from the center. Another view may be that the Congress and the President are now channeling the prejudices and wishes of high-end Americans -- namely, amalgamating a fiscal agenda that wealthy Americans can smile at with a social agenda that doesn't tick them off. In essence, Congress adopted a package that meets the approval of the elites of both parties.

The fact is that wealthier Americans played a real role in both electing Barack Obama in 2008 and in punishing the Democrats in 2010. In 2008, voters with incomes exceeding $200,000 went for Obama. In contrast, working class whites went for McCain-Palin by 18 percent. Likewise, college grads preferred Obama.

2010 was different. This time out, wealthy Americans, who figured out that they will be clipped by Obamacare and gored by a lapse in the Bush tax cuts, said "enough". Instead, they voted Republican. And although not all of them were necessarily comfortable with the Tea Party's costumes, high-end America could easily live with the Tea Party's message.

Which brings me to the lame duck and 2012. What passed Congress post-election was legislation that both Bush 41 and Bill Clinton could smile at. It was a package that Midwest country clubbers and New Democrats could (and did) get behind - a blend of establishmentism on foreign policy, tax cuts for high-end wage earners (Upper West Siders), and a hands off social message.

Barack Obama understands that he won the votes of high-end America and their kids in 2008. The GOP, although less of a rich persons party than it was thirty years ago, still needs the votes of wealthier Americans to win nationally and statewide (for example in Delaware and Nevada).  It also needs their contributions. Although more Democratic than yesteryear, Wall Street still gives big to the GOP.

For his part, Obama may have wanted to have spread the wealth, but reality made itself very clear on Election Day.  Obama's redistributionist wishes are on hold, though not dead.  At the same time, the president's ability to connect with working class America appears nil. Rightly wary of Obama in 2008, working class Americans have since given up on the president, as he has given up on them. And so look for the president to attempt to reinvigorate his minority voting base while trying to bring high-end voters back into the fold.

High-enders got what they wanted in the lame duck. Will they get what they want in the next 20 months?