Comments on: Why Obama Now Holds The Whip Hand

By: George Renaud

George Renaud — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 06:06:20 +0000

Obama has only one way out. He must use the NSDA and arrest the radio propagandist, Koch brothers and other traitors who finance them, round up the bribed politicians and restore democracy to America. This is the will of the majority. This is what saved England under Churchill and failure for Paul Reynaud of France who thought the other side was made of respectable men. Reynaud discovered to late that these men were willing to sell out to the highest bidder. Not men at all but traitors to democracy.

By: Richard Dawson

Richard Dawson — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:38:04 +0000

Dream on Bill Scher. About the only thing you got right was the observation that the Obama campaign never actually promised they would hold the line. That doesn’t really matter, however, since the one thing you can depend on with Obama is that he will not keep his promises.

Each day that passes reveals more give-aways. Today I learned that the deal also killed Ted Kennedy’s 2010 law establishing rudimentary long term care insurance.

Stand by for Obama to put Social Security and Medicare back on the block. That seems to be the one subject on which he has been consistent.

By: Miles Mogulescu

Miles Mogulescu — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 23:00:44 +0000

I wish Bill Sher was right that Obama still holds the bargaining leverage on budget and “entitlement” cuts but I’m afraid Bob Borosage has it more right (and according to press reports, Harry Reid agrees more with Bob). Obama was at the height of his 2nd term negotiating leverage before the Bush tax cuts expired–Had they expired without a deal, the stock market would have tanked, the vast majority of voters would have blamed Repubs, and the likelihood is that a more favorable deal could have been struck. The worst part of the McConnell-Biden/Obama deal wasn’t moving the increase in taxes from $250k-$450k (although that will cost $200 billion over a decade which will increase pressure to make it up through spending cuts). In terms of taxes, the worse concessions were on estate taxes which leave the capital gains of millionaires untaxed when they die, lower taxes on dividends than ordinary interest, and the $40 billion special interest tax breaks which the Wall St. Journal, of all people, rightly criticized this morning as a “Crony Capitalist Blowout”. But even worse was agreeing that the sequester would expire in 2 months at the same time as the debt ceiling is reached. Contrary to Bill, this dramatically shifts the negotiating leverage to the Repubs to force cuts in Social Security, Medicare and other social programs and McConnell and Reid clearly understand this. If Obama wouldn’t go over the fake “cliff” on tax rates that could quickly be fixed, he surely won’t go over the debt limit cliff which could cause vastly more economic damage–Whatever Obama may say, every politically savvy Republican knows he and the country can be taken hostage over the debt limit cliff. That’s why negotiations between Reid and McConnell ended on Saturday night when Reid reportedly threw the White House’s last set of concessions (which included the 2 month extension on the sequester) in the fireplace. If it were up the Reid, we would have gone over the cliff, but McConnell then cut him out and resurrected the negotiations with the White House which caved on the extension. “The deal itself is OK, but sets up Democrats for [a] worse fight and strengthens Republicans’ hand for what they really want: cuts,” said a Democratic source close to Reid. “Biden gave away the store on timeline. Two months and we’re back at this and in worse shape.” Unfortunately, I think Reid and Borosage have it right and Sher has it wrong. Get ready for cuts to Social Security, Medicare and social programs.

By: DHFabian

DHFabian — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 21:55:30 +0000

Something that I don’t think Americans are prepared to face: We were in a similar situation in the 1990s, and to get a budget passed, Clinton agreed to throw the poor off the cliff.General Assistance (welfare) was cut down to zero. AFDC was reformed out of existence. Aid for the disabled was slashed. All of that money is gone now, so it’s necessary to target the middle class. Every time such a thing was tried in the past, the poor and middle classes united to successfully push back. Not this time. This time, we were deeply, deeply divided (maybe conquered). So, what the middle class did to the poor, the rich are now doing to the middle class. All of this — all the political choices that have, step by step, brought us to this point — were made by the middle class, so I suppose there is a measure of justice in this.

By: DHFabian

DHFabian — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 21:47:12 +0000

Barack Obama said, from the start of his first campaign for the presidency, that there would be nothing he could achieve without the strong backing of the people. He made it very clear that it would take more than just sitting in our chairs grumbling. There was a burst of activism with Occupy, which was then quickly killed off by (mainly media) redefining this as a movement of middle class workers alone. The rest of us, the millions of post-middle class/poor, dropped out. As long as the discussion continues to center ONLY on protecting the comforts of the middle class, the better off, there will be no unity, no progress, and certainly not a movement of ordinary people demanding that Congress start representing us. Every time some TV host rambles on about the middle class, it drives the wedge deeper, keeping the “masses” divided and, presumably, conquered. There won’t be a movement without first having a political discussion that includes the millions effectively pushed out of our economic system — one that goes beyond merely calling for job creation for another decade. I’m not optimistic.

By: Robert Borosage

Robert Borosage — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:20:02 +0000

Strongly argued, and reflects what the White House is saying. But look at this from McConnell’s point of view. He knew that letting taxes go up on everyone to defend against tax hikes on millionaires was a loser. So he got taxes out of the way — preserving the Bush tax cuts for almost everyone. And keeping dividends taxed at 20% — a nice gift to the wealthiest campaign donors.

Then he added the sequester to the debt ceiling. No doubt he figures Rs will run the country up to default, then offer to repeal the sequester on both domestic and military spending in exchange for cuts in SS, Medicare and Medicaid. The elite press will scream for more deficit reduction. He’ll surely believe he has the stronger hand. (add to that the president’s constant predilection for cutting entitlements)

You’re right about the “principle” Rs gave up. And it was delightful watching Grover Norquist explain that the biggest tax hike in 20 years wasn’t a tax hike. But gird yourself for what comes next.