President Obama seeks to secure his 2012 defeat.
December 8, 2010

 
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President Obama announced to the White House Press Corp Tuesday morning that he is urging Democrats in Congress to cave in to the tyranny of the minority and agree to extend the Bush Tax Cuts for the Top 2% for two more years (ie: the year he leaves office) in exchange for a one-year extension in unemployment benefits… an extension that Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell ALREADY said on “Meet the Press” last Sunday they intend to do anyway. A “two year extension” might as well be a “permanent” extension because when he is replaced with a Republican in 2013, that president is going to make those tax cuts permanent anyway. Now I’m not saying “Obama will be a one-term president if this passes ‘because I won’t vote for him'” or anything childish like that. No, I’m citing a demonstrable fact. And here’s why:

“Repealing the Bush Tax Cuts for the top 2%” was a key plank in candidate Obama’s presidential platform. He brought it up so often, I’d argue it was in the top three issues of his campaign. Just listen to him in this video on just how important repealing those tax cuts were to reviving the economy, and how passing them was (quote) “a failure of leadership”:
 


 

I sent the White House the following e-mail:

I have NEVER seen such an incompetently negotiated policy issue such as this. Senate Minority Leader McConnell *already* said on Meet the Press this past Sunday that he expected Congress to approve an extension of unemployment benefits. They KNOW can’t NOT extend benefits or come January, voters will turn on them. So bargaining away budget-busting tax cuts in exchange for something Republicans have already said they’re going to do is no “compromise”. And what do Democrats get in return? An explosion in the size of the Deficit that Teabaggers will blame *President Obama* for.

Wise up. TAX CUTS ARE NOT STIMULATIVE! It doesn’t make sense to give away budget-busting tax cuts to the Top 2% just to give tax cuts to the lower 98% that won’t help the economy anyway. I urge Congress to vote NO on extending the tax cuts for the Top 2%. Use the revenue to pay for tax BREAKS for companies that create jobs, then blast Republicans for voting AGAINST tax cuts if they do. What a great election year position for Democrats to be in.

Instead, come 2012, Republicans will be able to tell voters how they “stood up to the White House and passed tax cuts for everyone, and when someone points out how much bigger the National Debt is because of it, they’ll blame President Obama for “not cutting spending”… even though they themselves can’t name a single thing they’d cut. And since tax cuts are not stimulative, unemployment will still be up over 9 percent as the Republican-controlled House… where all budgetary matters begin… says “No” to ANY additional Stimulus/Infrastructure spending that might improve the economy between now and the election. A Win/Win for Republicans, Lose/Lose for Democrats and President Obama.

What will President Obama have to run on in 2012? Health care reform that Republicans despise and most Democrats think he sold out on w/o a fight, sticking the country with “RomneyCare’s bastardized step-child”? And while there’s still hope DADT will be repealed before the end of the year, no one wins reelection on minority issues like “gay rights”. And to make matters worse, the war in Afghanistan will be bigger in 2012 than it was when he took office as well. And have we seen any Global Warming legislation? A Green Jobs program?

President Obama once said he’d rather be “a successful one term president than a mediocre two-term president”. Problem is that “successful” first terms are usually rewarded with a second, while “mediocre first terms” are not. President Obama is looking to hand Republicans the stick they’ll use to beat his ass all the way to the 2012 election if Democrats in Congress don’t save him from himself.

(PS: Lawrence Lewis over at DailyKOS has made similar observations about a “compromise” that does NOTHING to create jobs.)
 


 
And as usual: a reminder to Sign my Green Jobs petition:
Support green jobs NOW!

 


 

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December 8, 2010 · Admin Mugsy · No Comments - Add
Posted in: Economy, Election, Infrastructure, Money, Politics, Rants, Taxes

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