Virtually unanimously, Americans cheered President Obama for giving the order to send Navy SEALs to get Osama Bin Laden. We applauded the physical courage of those Navy Seals who risked their lives to carry out the raid.
But it also took political courage by President Obama to order the raid -- Sending Navy SEALs to cross hundreds of miles of Pakistani territory without alerting Pakistani authorities that their air defenses were being breached could easily have ended in disaster with American helicopters shot down and Navy SEALs killed or wounded. If the mission failed -- as Jimmy Carter's mission to rescue the American hostages in Iran failed despite the best intentions -- such failure could have destroyed Obama's Presidency, much as Carter's failure helped pave the way for the election of Ronald Reagan. Obama had the political courage to do the right thing to defend America, whatever the political risk.
The question is, will President Obama show similar courage in defending the nation against those who threaten to blow up the American economy -- indeed the global economy -- if he doesn't give into their demands to slash Medicare and Medicaid, as he did in going after than man responsible for blowing up the World Trade Center?
And make no mistake about it, that's exactly what Congressional Republican leaders are doing -- they are taking the economy hostage and threatening to blow it up if their demands to eviscerate Medicare, Medicaid and other programs vital to the middle class and the disadvantaged are not met.
If Republicans actually follow through on their threats and the US government defaults on its debt, worldwide credit markets will freeze, stock markets around the world will plunge, businesses will stop investing, millions will lose their jobs, and the global economic crisis will dwarf the fiscal crisis of 2008 that led to the federal bailout of the banking system to prevent global depression.
The rule in dealing with hostage takers is that you don't negotiate their demands. If you give into even some of their demands in exchange for releasing hostages, they will just learn that hostage-taking works and they or others will keep come back to take more hostages the next time they want something. Obama must have the courage to treat Republican demands to refuse to raise the debt limit and let the economy blow up in the same way he would treat other hostage takers. No negotiations!
Once the debt ceiling is raised, if negotiations are necessary to pass a budget, that's another matter. But if Obama starts down the road of negotiating with Republican leaders on cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, the Republicans (whose long-term goal is to abolish Medicare and Medicaid) will already have won. Their demands will just keep escalating right up until 11:59 before the government will default on its debt and Obama will have little choice but to give into more and more of their demands.
Unfortunately, President Obama has already started down the road of negotiating with the hostage takers, sending Vice President Biden to meet a "bipartisan" group of Congressional leaders to try to negotiate a deal. Predictably, Republicans immediately escalated their demands. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected a clean vote on the debt limit, demanded "significant" cuts to Medicare and Medicaid in exchange for raising the debt limit, and took tax increases on absolutely anyone off the table. House Speaker John Boehner told the Economic Club of New York, "Without significant spending cuts and reforms [code for cuts to Medicare and Medicaid]...there will be no debt limit increase."
If President Obama even continues negotiations on this Republican ground, the hostage takers have already won. Since half of the Federal budget is for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other insurance programs, a quarter is for the military, and a quarter is for everything else the government does, if you take defense cuts and tax increases off the table and demand trillions in spending cuts, the only place get enough cuts is from Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. This is the only conceivable result of negotiating on these terms with the Republican hostage takers.
If President Obama doesn't want to go down in history as the Democratic President who began the dismantling of the signature Democratic achievements of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, he must have the same courage in standing up to Republican hostage takers as he did in going after Bin Laden. He he must hold firm and make clear that there will be no negotiations on cuts to these core programs -- cuts which are opposed by the vast majority of the American people -- in exchange for Republican votes to raise the debt ceiling.
Republican leaders can threaten away to refuse to raise the debt ceiling and blow up the economy. But if Obama actually stands up to them, they will never follow through on their threats. Their corporate funders will never allow them to -- As much as America's corporate elite may want to keep their taxes low by cutting programs for the middle class and the poor, they are not suicidal. They will not allow Republican (and Democratic) politicians whose campaigns they fund to send the economy into a global depression by defaulting on the Federal debt. Indeed on Wednesday, 62 leading business groups--including the Business Roundtable, The American Gas Association, The Telecommunications Industry Association, and the Association of American Manufacturers--sent a letter to Congress asking them to raise the debt ceiling and warning of the dire consequences to the economy if they don't. These are the corporate interest groups who fund the Republican Party and from whom ultimately, Republicans take their orders.
If Obama stands firm, he will win. He must make it clear that he won't negotiate with hostage takers. No retreat! No surrender!
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UPDATE: On Friday the US Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to all members of Congress stating that "The Chamber urges Congress to raise the debt ceiling as expeditiously as possible". From 1989-2010 the Chamber made $31,333,791 in direct political contributions (85% to Republicans), not counting tens of millions more in Republican-leaning issue advertising not directly to candidates, and from 1997-2010 spent $515,565,445 on lobbying. When the Chamber says "jump", Republicans in Congress say "how high?" This just underscores the fact that if Obama has the political courage to call the Republicans' bluff on the debt ceiling and refuses to negotiate cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in return for their voting to raise the debt limit, the Republicans will fold.
With a coveted prized trophy, Osama, in his court, President Obama has a powerful re-election trophy to sway the masses for a second term. Something that eluded both Bu$h and the GOPer's for 8 years. So how does one minimize it? What do GOPer's have in their power to steer an outcome that would be detrimental to President Obama in 2012? Seems the deficit ceiling is the power tool. And the GOPer's have the ability and cojones to pull it off too.
Notice too they've altered the debate in claiming expenditures must be cut if the deficits ceiling is to be raised. They've spent an awful lot of political capital convincing their base the deficit ceiling is like a credit card balance...once you reach the limit, you need to stop using it and start paying with cash. Of course, those of us with an ounce or better of intelligence know better...they're trying to turn peas into beans.
What they're hoping for is if Obama calls their bluff and doesn't give them the expenditure cuts they're demanding, the economy will implode. And as the blame game begins, their position will be none of this would have happened if Obama had given them the cuts in expenditures they demanded. Obama had it within his power to avert the collapse and refused to do so as a result of political partisanship rather than what was good for the nation.
I financially supported President Obama last election, but even after repeated calls to send a healthy contribution for 2012, I am on HOLD. If the president can’t stand firm for what he believes and, what we elected him for, then I cannot financially support him.
It is time to stop the bullies with strong concerted actions and pressure. Take the agenda back and lead with it. How did the republicans ever get control of the agenda in the first place? My President, get on the offense and quit playing defense. Tell the republicans what you are going to do and go get it done. It is time to play HARD BALL with these extremists.
Will he hold out?
Will he cave in?
Will there be reasonable or unreasonable compromises?
The way Obama handles this should tell us two things.
Does he really have a pair?
Is he really a right of center closet Republican?
I have my thoughts on the matter....and I sure hope I am wrong!
Then lets follow YOUR lead and tax and spend and borrow our way to Prosperity!
The deficit you demand Obama quit borrowing for was run up by Bu$h and the GOPer's :
1. Bu$h tax cuts - not funded
2. Afgan war - not funded
3. Iraq war - not funded
4. Medicare prescription drug plan - not funded
They all required tax increases which GOPer's are dead set against. So they floated checks to pay for them. And now those checks are being presented for payment in the form of principal and interest payments for the bonds that were sold.
And what's even more interesting is if...a big if here...the GOPer's had raised taxes to pay for their follies, the cost would have been cheaper for the taxpayer...no interest payment - just principle.
If you really are serious about some needing to be, then I would suggest you start voting a straight Democrat ticket from now on.
The American people showed what they thought of the Democrats in November.
Now I'll have a reason to go there.
Free or almost free healthcare and pension benefits, able to retire at age 55 or 52 and I'm overpaid for the actual difficulty of the work I perform-and never work overtime unless it's double pay?
Sweet.
Yes, I'll simply unionize instead.
i really hope obama does not cave in.
end all bush tax cuts...
It's mass madness, is what it is! And they're so forward about it these days. That's what kills me the most. They're so blunt in their willingness to utterly destroy what's left of the middle class. Their allegiance to big business has never been clearer. And yet they're STILL gaining votes. How is this even possible? How have the working poor become so co-opted into voting against their own self interests?
Beautifully written and tragically true. The Republicans get more devious every day. If the Repubs win in 2012, this country is DOOMED! Keep up the good work.
The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, said Thursday that the debt ceiling debate provides Congress with a rare opportunity to make sweeping changes to entitlement programs and spending, and that he would not vote to raise the level without significant budget cuts and revisions to Medicare and Medicaid.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/us/politics/13budget.html