Obama Faces Grumbling on the Left

By Corey Dade, NPR

President Obama may have lost a direct hand in the debt-limit negotiations, but some of his liberal base is still seething at the concessions he was willing to make to Republicans — especially Social Security and Medicare cuts that may yet be in the offing.

When a few hundred liberal activists protested outside the Capitol on Thursday, they vented most of their frustrations at Republican lawmakers — especially the Tea Party caucus — who called for deep cuts to safety net programs in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. But they also blamed Obama for agreeing to put entitlement programs on the bargaining table at all.