He has to fund his lobby so when he finishes his term of office he can push his ideologies on the rest of the Democratic Party.
and there was no big uproar about it then (political games are only bad when the other guy does it - right?)
It isn't the President's job to make congress do their job. Because Republicans in congress are obstructing, that isn't the President's fault. What is your idea of personal responsibility when you want someone else to make congress do their work, instead of holding congress responsible to do their work?