Progressives and liberal Democrats are blowing hot air on President Obama's tax cut deal. They include saber rattling of a Senate filibuster, screams for everyone from defeated Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold to Hillary Clinton to challenge Obama in the Democratic primary, polls on left blogs and websites running heavily against him seeking re-election, and mountains of sworn promises that progressives will not spend a second of time working for Obama's reelection or contribute a dime to his reelection bid.
This is pure bluster. The political reality that Obama faced and that progressives and liberal Democrats are loathe to admit but must face nonetheless is that Obama had no choice but to hold his nose and make the deal. The reasons were simple. The GOP held all the cards. It's nice to engage in feel good rhetoric about Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, and to say that the president should have used those majorities, and the bully pulpit of the Oval Office to do a Harry Truman and FDR and give the GOP hell as hypocrites, obstructionists, and the party of big wealth. And then defiantly tell the American people why he'd stand tall and veto any tax cut bill that kept the cuts for the rich in there. He would have drawn wild cheers and back-patting from liberals and progressives but come January and beyond when the paychecks of tens of millions of workers shrunk, and tens of thousands of small and medium sized businesses screamed bloody murder about tax hikes, more forced payroll slashes and reduction in equipment buying, and millions of unemployed were hung out to dry with not a nickel of income coming in, guess whose head the wrath of the nation would come down on.
Then there's the reaction of GOP hard liners. They froth at GOP leaders for giving up more than they should have given up on the unemployed and social security benefits that do help far more workers and needy then the tax giveaway to the rich.
The shouts that Obama should just turn the tables on the GOP and dump the blame back on them also ignores too much. He's tried to do that all along and the message has been deliberately and skillfully twisted, ignored, and used to hector him by the GOP echo chamber. The fight that liberal Democrats are screaming that he should have made all along, one could just as easily asked why didn't most of them launch their own national campaign to back Obama and educate their constituents that if the GOP let the rich get their way on taxes after January it was their fault. But they didn't and because of a mix of timidity, fear, and in some cases flat out believe that the GOP was right and the tax cuts for the fat cats weren't a totally bad thing, they dumped the heavy lifting to do this on Obama's shoulders. In other words, many Democrats through cowardice or belief in the phony and totally discredited trickle down line that giving the rich more cash will somehow magically translate into more investment, more jobs, and more economic growth sat on their haunches.
It's odious to give money to those who don't need it, will hoard it, and not create one job, or save one foreclosed home, or help sustain one small business. But it would have been even more odious to watch the GOP noise machine trot out nightly a homeless laid off worker, or family pushed over the edge after losing their child tax or earned income credit weeping on national TV about how Obama (not the GOP which rightly should be fingered) pushed them into the breadlines.
The conventional wisdom from progressive and liberal Democrats is that Obama left himself wide open for the beating he's getting for making the deal with the devil because he promised so long and so vehemently on the campaign trail to nail the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to the wall and that he lied, or that he's just to weak too do anything but cave to the GOP bullying, badgering and hectoring. That's even more asinine. Candidate Obama could make any promise he wanted including be a tough guy and torpedo the Bush tax cuts for the rich. But presidential candidate Obama didn't face the loss in November of sixty Democratic House seats, seven Senate seats, and a slew of suddenly GOP controlled state legislatures in the must win states of Ohio and Florida in 2012.
Candidate Obama did not face a GOP that will stop at nothing to hack up or do away with any aid to the poor, working class and unemployed, and that has the power to do it. That's called hardnosed realpolitik. This has and always will trump symbolic protests, or unwinnable line in the sand stands. Obama got the best deal he could have gotten given the impossible political odds he faced, and any other Democrat that sat in the same seat he does would have done the same.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He hosts nationally broadcast political affairs radio talk shows on Pacifica and KTYM Radio Los Angeles.
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Mr. Obama doesn't capitulate to the GOP because he is weak or because he has no choice--he does it because his agenda is much the same as the GOP...he simply uses the GOP's chest-pounding buffoonery and threats as an excuse for doing what he planned to do all along.
The victims here are Obama's 2008 voters who believed he would perform on his campaign promises. What we believed to be a man of his word turned out to be a bait-and-switch artist, as he has consistently promised one thing and done another.
As early as August 2009, Pew/LATimes polls started showing Obama's loss of the support of many of his 2008 voting groups, largely because he broke campaign promises. This has progressed, and, in 2010 we saw a large percentage of Democratic voters--far more than usual--demonstrate their apathy by simply not bothering to show up at the polls.
It was Obama who took the "YES WE CAN!!" voters of 2008 and turned them into the "meh" nonvoters of 2010.
This trend will not change unless the reason for the trend changes.
It's too late for Obama to win back his 2008 voters--they will never trust him again. But if we have Obama as a candidate in 2012, we will wake up in 2013 with a GOP Congress and President.
The two terms "weak politician" and "president" are mutually exclusive: if one is true, the other must be false. Obama is president; therefore, he must not be weak.
Obama "capitulates" to the GOP because the GOP's arrogant chest-pounding gives him an excuse to do what he planned, and wanted, to do all along.
I know it's hard to face, but those of us who voted for Obama in 2008 were really swindled. In the quid-pro-quo deal voters make with politicians, where the voters vote the politician into office and, in exchange, the politician does what they promised to do during the campaign, we got taken--but good.
In California, the bait-and-switch sales scheme is illegal. If politicians were included in those to whom the law applies, we could prosecute Obama for what he has done since his campaign.
We must immediately come up with a campaign strategy for 2012 that does not include Obama as a candidate, or we will face a Republican Congress and President in 2013. Not only will Obama lose his reelection, he will take down many of the other Democrats up for reelection, as the Obama "meh" nonvoters, once again, see no reason to bother voting.
On top of the fact that Obama is a profound disappointment, I am also frustrated by the progressives that are still carrying water for him. Hopefully a strong progressive challenger will step up soon.
Meanwhile, those that only weeks ago assured the jobless we were on their side suddenly now seem just as willing to throw them to the curb as the tormentors that callously, cold heartedly have been insisting we do all along were doing when we were defending the jobless. Do we now ALL suddenly believe that the jobless should be just left in the street to rot and freeze? To accomplish what? Accomplish what amounts to no more than cause some minor irritation to the wealthy, and make ourselves feel good that they didn't get to keep 3.6% of the already obscene amounts of money they make for doing little or nothing more laborous than allowing their money to make them more money. If we think ending the tax cuts will strike some kind of blow for the little guy or demonstrate our resolve not to let the rich get richer, we are sadly mistaken.
Our little 3.6% revolt is a laughable amount to the wealthier of our country. Right now, they are laughing at us and our little revolt to try making them pay their fair share. Go ahead, up my rate by you pittance and see how little it really stops me from continuing to live, spend and enjoy the way I already do now. I won't do without anything I want or need no matter which way the deal ends. Meanwhile you are gathering steam to finish the job that was started on the jobless in order to try hurting me with your meaningless revolt. I can still live just as well as I do now. It is YOU, you bunch of fools, that are going to do the hurting. YOUR taxes will go up just to make MINE go up...I can easily afford or evade those taxes...Can YOU? Go ahead and stomp your feet and make yourself feel good about hurting me while you not only hurt yourselves, but do-in all the poor jobless people while you are at it.
Just because it's Pres. Obama doesn't make this deal stink any less.