President veers toward right in bid for debt compromise

That has some progressive members of Congress and liberal groups arguing that by not fighting for more stimulus spending, Obama could be left with an economy still producing so few jobs by Election Day that his reelection could be threatened.

Not only would independents be turned off, but Obama risks alienating Democratic voters already disappointed by his escalation of the war in Afghanistan, and by his failure to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, end the Bush-era tax cuts, and enact a government-run health insurance system.

“The activist liberal base will support Obama because they’re terrified of the right wing,’’ said Robert L. Borosage, codirector of the liberal group Campaign for America’s Future.

He added: “But I believe that the voting base of the Democratic Party - young people, single women, African-Americans, Latinos - are going to be so discouraged by this economy and so dismayed unless the president starts to champion a jobs program and take on the Republican Congress that the ability of labor to turn out its vote, the ability of activists to mobilize that vote, is going to be dramatically reduced.’’

Obama’s efforts at compromise have pushed the debate firmly to the right. In his failed effort to negotiate a broad budget deal with Republicans, Obama proposed far more in reductions for future years’ spending, including from Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, than he did new revenue from the wealthy and corporations.

He proposed fewer cuts in military spending and more in health care programs than a bipartisan Senate group that includes one of that chamber’s most conservative Republicans.

To win congressional approval of the essential increase in the nation’s borrowing ceiling, Obama sought more in deficit reduction than Republicans did, with fewer changes to the entitlement benefit programs, because he was willing to raise additional revenue starting in 2013 and they were not.