Is Obama a Liberal or Moderate?

[ajb]

It's all relative, isn't it? Richard Nixon cosied up to one of the most violently left-wing radical governments in world history (China during the Cultural Revolution), founded the EPA, enhanced safety regulations, funded methadone clinics, increased social welfare spending till it amounted to more than 150% of defense spending, and tried to implement universal health care. All of which were, in his time, moderate policies, likely to appeal to many Republican voters.

[ajb]

It would be interesting to know more about how people define both the labels they use for themselves, and the labels they use for others.
Clearly, for example, what a liberal calls "liberal," and what a conservative calls "liberal," are different -- and not just because for one it's a fuzzy, feel-good word, and for the other, it's a misguided world view, or worse.
For me as a liberal, the difference between conservatives and liberals on economic policy in America today would go something like this. Both liberals and conservatives believe that, in general, markets do the best job of allocating resources (that's why liberals are liberals, and not socialists or communists). They differ in how they feel about negative externalities and market failures, with liberals thinking we're all better off in the long run if government acts to correct these cases where markets fail, and conservatives thinking that it's better to leave the market alone, even if the market's failures hurt some people disproportionately, because attempts to fix the market will only make things worse.
As such, Obama has governed pretty much as a mainstream American liberal, while studiously avoiding any policy positions that would put him to the left of liberal.
Of course, what I've just described as the American liberal position would have been the European center-right position circa 1975. 

[ajb]

Probably the most liberal POTUS to serve in my lifetime. Sometimes I think Obama tries to go as Left as he can, while still remaining politically viable. He certainly, unlike Clinton, has done nothing to really upset his base, including doing nothing on entitlements, even though he won't increase taxes on the middle class to pay for it - just a 4% increase or so on those making over 250K, which gets you about one twelfth of the way to something that will pencil.

As I'm sure you're aware, the CBO would dispute you on the claim of yours I've bolded.

[ajb]

I'd really dispute the claim that Obama is more to the left, economically, than Clinton, let alone Carter. Taxes are lower than they were under Clinton, and it's Obama's policy that they should stay that way. Obama care is more market-oriented than Hillarycare was, and is derived fairly explicitly from the kind of ideas that the Heritage Foundation liked in the '90s, as a way of forestalling a genuinely leftist set of reforms.

[ajb]

Probably the most liberal POTUS to serve in my lifetime. Sometimes I think Obama tries to go as Left as he can, while still remaining politically viable. He certainly, unlike Clinton, has done nothing to really upset his base, including doing nothing on entitlements, even though he won't increase taxes on the middle class to pay for it - just a 4% increase or so on those making over 250K, which gets you about one twelfth of the way to something that will pencil.

As I'm sure you're aware, the CBO would dispute you on the claim of yours I've bolded.

What has Obama done?

Five letters. PP-ACA.

[ajb]

I'd really dispute the claim that Obama is more to the left, economically, than Clinton, let alone Carter. Taxes are lower than they were under Clinton, and it's Obama's policy that they should stay that way. Obama care is more market-oriented than Hillarycare was, and is derived fairly explicitly from the kind of ideas that the Heritage Foundation liked in the '90s, as a way of forestalling a genuinely leftist set of reforms.

Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter both left economic deregulation as their chief economic accomplishments. Clinton deregulated the financial industry; Carter deregulated airlines and trucking. Obama has enacted more new federal regulations than any president since Nixon.

Obama wants higher taxes on the wealthy; Clinton has publicly disagreed.

And Carter did not support any attempt at universal healthcare as president. He did not believe people had a "right" to healthcare. Nixon was more of a liberal on healthcare than Carter.

Carter did call for "a comprehensive national health insurance system with universal and mandatory coverage." He wasn't very successful at making it happen, mind you.